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Advances in single-molecule junctions as tools for chemical and biochemical analysis

Nature Chemistry volume 15, pages 600–614 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

The development of miniaturized electronics has led to the design and construction of powerful experimental platforms capable of measuring electronic properties to the level of single molecules, along with new theoretical concepts to aid in the interpretation of the data. A new area of activity is now emerging concerned with repurposing the tools of molecular electronics for applications in chemical and biological analysis. Single-molecule junction techniques, such as the scanning tunnelling microscope break junction and related single-molecule circuit approaches have a remarkable capacity to transduce chemical information from individual molecules, sampled in real time, to electrical signals. In this Review, we discuss single-molecule junction approaches as emerging analytical tools for the chemical and biological sciences. We demonstrate how these analytical techniques are being extended to systems capable of probing chemical reaction mechanisms. We also examine how molecular junctions enable the detection of RNA, DNA, and traces of proteins in solution with limits of detection at the zeptomole level.

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Fig. 1: Comparison of the temporal resolution and the detection limits of bulk analytical techniques versus those of SMJs.
Fig. 2: BJ techniques.
Fig. 3: Chemical sensing using FGJ.
Fig. 4: Chemical mechanisms, one molecule at a time using FGJ.
Fig. 5: RT and its applications.
Fig. 6: Future prospective.

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Acknowledgements

N.D. acknowledges support from the Western Australian Future Health Research and Innovation Fund and the Australian Research Council Discovery Project DP190100735. P.J.L. acknowledges support from the Australian Research Council through Discovery Project DP220100790.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Molecular and Life Sciences, Curtin University, Bentley, Western Australia, Australia

    Essam M. Dief & Nadim Darwish

  2. School of Molecular Sciences, University of Western Australia, Crawley, Western Australia, Australia

    Paul J. Low

  3. Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Natural & Mathematical Sciences, King’s College London, London, UK

    Ismael Díez-Pérez

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  1. Essam M. Dief
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Contributions

N.D. conceived the topic and the structure of the Review. N.D. and E.M.D. conducted the literature research and wrote the initial manuscript with notable contributions from P.J.L. and I.D.-P. All the authors contributed to the discussion, editing and revision of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Nadim Darwish.

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Dief, E.M., Low, P.J., Díez-Pérez, I. et al. Advances in single-molecule junctions as tools for chemical and biochemical analysis. Nat. Chem. 15, 600–614 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41557-023-01178-1

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