A new type of molecular wire that shows high conductance has been made by Spanish and Swiss scientists. 

A basic goal in molecular electronics is to measure and control electron transport through a molecule attached to two electrodes. Nazario Martin, at the Complutense University of Madrid, Spain, and colleagues sandwiched the redox-active building block, tetrathiafulvalene (TTF), between two atomic-sized gold electrodes, using sulfur end groups to connect them. The electron transport in the resulting wire was then tested and showed positive results.

"There is poor agreement in the conductance values for molecular wires reported by different research groups," said Martin. "Our measurements using a break junction set-up and a scanning tunnelling microscope proved to be very reliable and confirmed a high conductance." 

Future work will focus on tailoring the structure and functionality of the wire. In particular, Martin plans to investigate how the oxidation state of the TTF group influences the conducting properties. 

Joanne Thomson