Electronic properties and materials articles within Nature Chemistry

Featured

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The insertion of metal atoms and heteroaromatic units provides a way to tune the optical, electronic and magnetic properties of graphene nanoribbons. Now the synthesis of a porphyrin-fused graphene nanoribbon with a narrow bandgap and high charge mobility has been achieved, and this material used to fabricate field-effect and single-electron transistors.

    • Qiang Chen
    • , Alessandro Lodi
    •  & Harry L. Anderson

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Switching the magnetic state of a polycyclic conjugated hydrocarbon in a reversible and controlled manner is challenging. Now, by means of single-molecule scanning probe microscopy, an indenofluorene isomer on ultrathin NaCl films has been shown to adopt both open- and closed-shell states. Furthermore, bidirectional switching between the two states is achieved by changing the adsorption site of the molecule.

    • Shantanu Mishra
    • , Manuel Vilas-Varela
    •  & Leo Gross

  • Article
    | Open Access

    On-surface synthesis enables highly reactive structures to be produced under vacuum, but they need to be passivated to be incorporated into practical devices. Here, the facile protection of air-sensitive chiral graphene nanoribbons has been shown, by either hydrogenation or synthesis of an oxidized form. The chemically stable forms can subsequently be deprotected.

    • James Lawrence
    • , Alejandro Berdonces-Layunta
    •  & Dimas G. de Oteyza

  • Article |

    Supramolecular interactions play an essential role in organic electronic materials and biological systems. Now, it has been demonstrated that the σ–σ stacking interactions between neighbouring non-conjugated molecules can offer an efficient pathway for charge transport through supramolecular junctions, which provides a new guideline for the design and fabrication of organic materials and devices.

    • Anni Feng
    • , Yu Zhou
    •  & Wenjing Hong

  • Article |

    Layered materials held together by weak interactions can be exfoliated into monolayers that retain the structure and composition of their bulk counterpart, but this has remained challenging to achieve for non-van der Waals materials. Now, AgCrS2 has been exfoliated into such [CrS2]Ag[CrS2] nanosheets through intercalation with tetraalkylammonium cations chosen for their suitable redox potential. The nanosheets show superionic behaviour at room temperature.

    • Jing Peng
    • , Yuhua Liu
    •  & Yi Xie

  • Article |

    Spin-crossover nanoparticles have been covalently grafted onto a semiconducting MoS2 layer to form a self-strainable heterostructure. Under light or thermal stimulus, the nanoparticles switch between their high- and low-spin states, in which they have different volumes. This generates a reversible strain over the MoS2 layer and, in turn, alters the electrical and optical properties of the heterostructure.

    • Ramón Torres-Cavanillas
    • , Marc Morant-Giner
    •  & Eugenio Coronado

  • Article |

    Open-shell nanographenes are promising for quantum technologies, but their magnetic stability has remained limited by weak exchange coupling. Now, two large rhombus-shaped nanographenes with zigzag peripheries, one with 48 carbon atoms and the other with 70, have been synthesized on gold and copper surfaces. The 70-carbon compound exhibits a large magnetic exchange coupling exceeding 100 meV.

    • Shantanu Mishra
    • , Xuelin Yao
    •  & Roman Fasel

  • Article |

    Polyacetylene is an ideal system to probe to gain a better understanding of the nature of charge transport in conducting polymers. Now, individual atomically precise polyacetylene chains have been synthesized on a copper surface and characterized using a range of techniques, revealing a doping-induced semiconductor-to-metal transition.

    • Shiyong Wang
    • , Qiang Sun
    •  & Wei Xu

  • Article |

    Singlet fission, a spin-allowed conversion of a spin-singlet state into a pair of spin-triplet excitons, may be useful for the development of next-generation photovoltaics. Ultrafast coherence measurements now show that vibrational motions play a critical role in fission as they facilitate the mixing of triplet-pair states with singlet excitons.

    • Artem A. Bakulin
    • , Sarah E. Morgan
    •  & Akshay Rao

  • Editorial |

    The field of molecular electronics has developed significantly as experimental techniques to study charge transport through single molecules have become more reliable. Three Articles in this issue highlight how chemists can now better understand and control electronic properties at the molecular level.

  • Review Article |

    Bringing porphyrins in contact with well-defined interfaces generates a rich playground of chemical behaviour and properties for exploration and exploitation. This Review examines our current understanding of surface-confined tetrapyrroles and their embedding in nanoarchitectures - discussing both the structural and functional attributes, and methods by which to manipulate their intramolecular and organizational features.

    • Willi Auwärter
    • , David Écija
    •  & Johannes V. Barth

  • News & Views |

    Self-assembled amphiphiles are more common in the realm of aqueous systems than in organic solvents. Their scope has now been expanded with the advent of 'hydrophobic amphiphiles' of π-conjugated–alkyl systems, which show various self-assembled phases similar to classical amphiphiles.

    • Albert P. H. J. Schenning
    •  & Subi J. George

  • News & Views |

    The fate of newly created excited states in conjugated materials is not fully understood, with unanswered questions regarding where exactly excitons form and their subsequent behaviour. Now, single-molecule spectroscopy studies of large conjugated molecular wheels reveal that excitons localize at random positions around the wheel rims.

    • Ivan G. Scheblykin

  • Article |

    A deficiency in our molecular-level understanding of the electronic structure of conjugated polymers hinders their potential use in electronic applications. Shape-persistent highly ordered ring structures have been used to mimic conjugated polymers and have now been studied using single-molecule spectroscopy. The fundamentally non-deterministic nature of excitation energy localisation in π-conjugated macromolecules has been demonstrated.

    • A. Vikas Aggarwal
    • , Alexander Thiessen
    •  & John M. Lupton

  • Article |

    The co-existence of superconductivity and magnetism in single compounds is rare, and heterostructures containing both properties have only been made with complex techniques. Now, a molecular-building-block approach has been applied to match organic and inorganic layers to produce multifunctional materials.

    • Eugenio Coronado
    • , Carlos Martí-Gastaldo
    •  & Peter J. Baker

  • News & Views |

    Electrically tunable materials are used to construct switches and memory devices. Applying an electric field within a specific temperature range to cyanometallate complexes triggers their charge-transfer phase transition, altering their optical and magnetic properties.

    • Osamu Sato

Browse broader subjects

Browse Electronic properties and materials across other nature.com journals