Probing Charge Transport of Ruthenium-Complex-Based Molecular Wires at the Single-Molecule Level

A ruthenium(II) bis(sigma-arylacetylide)-complex-based molecular wire functionalized with thiolacetyl alligator clips at both ends (OPERu) was used to fabricate gold substrate-molecular wire-conductive tip junctions. To elucidate the ruthenium-complex-enhanced charge transport, we conducted a single-molecule level investigation using the technique-combination method, where electronic delay constant, single-molecular conductance, and barrier height were obtained by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) apparent height measurements, STM break junction measurements, and conductive probe-atomic force microscopy (CP-AFM) measurements, respectively.