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Supramolecular electronics provide opportunities to integrate molecular building blocks into electronic circuits, and investigations of the mechanical properties of the non‐covalent interactions are necessary to understand the role of the assembly configuration in the electronic coupling among different assembly blocks. However, the mechanical characterization of supramolecular interactions remains experimentally challenging. We investigated the strain distribution of the supramolecular interactions through a series of single‐stacking junctions. The alpha values exhibit a clear odd‐even effect versus the numbers of thiophene rings. The theoretical calculations demonstrated that a larger rotational barrier of the single‐stacking junctions with an even number of thiophene rings leads to limited torsional freedom and thus a smaller strain distribution. These results provide new insights into the control of supramolecular interactions by the design of the basic molecular building blocks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Together with the more intuitive and commonly recognized conductance mechanisms of charge‐hopping and tunneling, quantum‐interference (QI) phenomena have been identified as important factors affecting charge transport through molecules. Consequently, establishing simple and flexible molecular‐design strategies to understand, control, and exploit QI in molecular junctions poses an exciting challenge. Here we demonstrate that destructive quantum interference (DQI) in meta‐substituted phenylene ethylene‐type oligomers (m‐OPE) can be tuned by changing the position and conformation of methoxy (OMe) substituents at the central phenylene ring. These substituents play the role of molecular‐scale taps, which can be switched on or off to control the current flow through a molecule. Our experimental results conclusively verify recently postulated magic‐ratio and orbital‐product rules, and highlight a novel chemical design strategy for tuning and gating DQI features to create single‐molecule devices with desirable electronic functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Photoresponsive molecular systems are essential for molecular optoelectronic devices, but most molecular building blocks are non‐photoresponsive. Employed here is a photoinduced proton transfer (PIPT) strategy to control charge transport through single‐molecule azulene junctions with visible light under ambient conditions, which leads to a reversible and controllable photoresponsive molecular device based on non‐photoresponsive molecules and a photoacid. Also demonstrated is the application of PIPT in two single‐molecule AND gate and OR gate devices with electrical signal as outputs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We studied the single-molecule conductance through an acid oxidant triggered phenothiazine (PTZ-) based radical junction using the mechanically controllable break junction technique. The electrical conductance of the radical state was enhanced by up to 200 times compared to the neutral state, with high stability lasting for at least two months and high junction formation probability at room-temperature. Theoretical studies revealed that the conductance increase is due to a significant decrease of the HOMO-LUMO gap and also the enhanced transmission close to the HOMO orbital when the radical forms. The large conductance enhancement induced by the formation of the stable PTZ radical molecule will lead to promising applications in single-molecule electronics and spintronics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]