In this seminar, I will discuss our recent work on charge-transport through self-assembled ensembles of (bio)molecules. When sandwiched between electrodes, these ensembles mitigate charge-transport primarily via non-resonant tunneling, presenting the opportunity to control the flow of charge across interfaces at the quantum level, through self-assembly and synthetic modification.[1] We are developing a new type of self-assembled monolayer that enables the creation of robust molecular ensemble junctions that can be printed, integrated into devices and that are bench-stable for weeks. Using this approach to program the self-assembly of protein complexes that sustain coherent tunneling over distances of 10 nm, we have been able to create rudimentary diode logic devices[2] and memrister-like devices that read out stochastic information encoded in trains of droplets in microfluidic channels.[3]
[1] Liu,Yuru; Qiu,Xinkai; Soni,Saurabh; Chiechi,Ryan C. Charge Transport Through Molecular Ensembles: Recent Progress in Molecular Electronics. Chem. Phys. Rev. 2021, 2, 021303
[2] Qiu, Xinkai; Chiechi, Ryan C. Printable Logic Circuits Comprising Self-Assembled Protein Complexes. Nature Communications 2022, 13, 2312
[3] Qiu, Xinkai; Rousseva, Sylvia; Ye, Gang; Hummelen, Jan C.; Chiechi, Ryan C. In Operando Modulation of Rectification in Molecular Tunneling Junctions Comprising Reconfigurable Molecular Self-Assemblies. Adv. Mater. 2021, 33, 2006109
