Influence of anchoring groups on single-molecular junction conductance: Theoretical comparative study of thiol and amine

Abstract

Abstract Understanding the transport characteristics of single molecules bonded between metal electrodes is of fundamental importance for molecular scale electronics. By performing first-principle quantum transport calculations, we investigate the influence of anchoring groups on the conductance of a single molecular junction. The results indicated that the conductance of a single-molecule anchoring the Au electrode with thiol can be enhanced obviously by changing the anchoring group with amine. More importantly, the negative differential resistance behavior is found in the I-V characteristic of this single-molecule junction with thiol anchoring group, which also can be enlarged remarkably by replacing the anchoring group with amine. The results suggest that the diamine as anchoring group has a great potential in molecular electronics.