Working Paper
Authors
- Songsong Li
University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Edward Jira University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Nicholas Angello University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Jialing Li University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Hao Yu University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Jeffrey Moore University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Ying Diao University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Martin Burke University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign ,
- Charles Schroeder University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign
Abstract
The development of next-generation organic electronic materials critically relies on understanding structure-function relationships in conjugated polymers. However, unlocking the full potential of organic materials requires access to their vast chemical space while efficiently managing the large synthetic workload to survey new materials. In this work, we use automated synthesis to prepare a library of conjugated oligomers with systematically varied side chain composition followed by single-molecule characterization of charge transport. Our results show that molecular junctions with long alkyl side chains exhibit a concentration-dependent bimodal conductance with an unexpectedly high conductance state that arises due to surface adsorption and backbone planarization, which is supported by a series of control experiments using asymmetric, planarized, and sterically hindered molecules. Density functional theory simulations and experiments using different anchors and alkoxy side chains highlight the role of side chain chemistry on charge transport. Overall, this work opens new avenues for using automated synthesis for the development and understanding of organic electronic materials.
Content

Supplementary material

SI-Li-Alkyl side chain
Supporting information