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A new series of nanotubes synthesized from α-cyclodextrin (molecular nanotube) form an inclusion complex with polyaniline, a conducting polymer. This inclusion complex can be considered to be an insulated molecular wire (IMW). In this study, we investigated the conductivity of this insulated molecular wire by using narrow-gap (150 nm) electrodes fabricated by a scanning-probe nanofabrication technique. The IMW, on doping, showed nearly ohmic I - V characteristics, and the conductivity was estimated to be 4 × 10 −2 S/cm.

We have reported the formation and property of an insulated molecular wire formed by emeraldine base polyaniline (EB-PANI) and molecular nanotube. In this study, the insulated molecular wire was doped by HCl solution. The doping induced the broad absorption band around 800 nm and higher wavelength due to the polaron formation. When a solution of the insulated molecular wire was dropped and dried out on a mica substrate, the number of the insulated molecular wires attached to the mica surface was increased by the doping. This suggested that the HCI-doped cationic insulated molecular wire was strongly attached to the anionic mica surface than the non-doped insulated molecular wire. Consequently, the insulated molecular wire could he duped by HCl solution without dissociation.