Remarkable Multichannel Conductance of Novel Single-Molecule Wires Built on Through-Space Conjugated Hexaphenylbenzene

Through-bond
conjugated molecules are the major frameworks for
traditional molecular wires, while through-space conjugated units
are rarely utilized and studied although they have shown unique conducting
potential. Herein, we present
novel single-molecule wires built on through-space conjugated hexaphenylbenzene.
Their conductance, measured by the scanning tunneling microscopy based
break-junction technique, increases with the improvement of through-space
conjugation and finally reaches a remarkable value (12.28 nS) which
greatly exceeds that of conventional through-bond conjugated counterpart
(2.45
nS). The multichannel conducting model by integrating through-space and
through-bond conjugations could be a promising strategy for the further
design of robust single-molecule wires with advanced conductance and
stability.