Spin-dependent charge transmission through chiral 2T3N self-assembled monolayer on Au

Andrea Stefani; Massimo Innocenti; Walter Giurlani; Nicola Calisi; Maddalena Pedio; Roberto Felici; Laura Favaretto; Manuela Melucci; Chiara Zanardi; Andrew C Jones; Suryakant Mishra; Nicola Zema; Claudio Fontanesi

doi:10.1063/5.0151350

Spin-dependent charge transmission through chiral 2T3N self-assembled monolayer on Au

J Chem Phys. 2023 Sep 14;159(10):104701. doi: 10.1063/5.0151350.

Authors

Andrea Stefani¹, Massimo Innocenti^{2

3}, Walter Giurlani^{2

3}, Nicola Calisi^{3

4}, Maddalena Pedio⁵, Roberto Felici⁶, Laura Favaretto⁷, Manuela Melucci⁷, Chiara Zanardi^{7

8}, Andrew C Jones⁹, Suryakant Mishra^{1

9

10}, Nicola Zema¹¹, Claudio Fontanesi^{1

3}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Physics (FIM), University of Modena, Via Campi 213/A, 41125 Modena, Italy.
² Department of Chemistry, "Ugo Schiff," University of Firenze, Via della Lastruccia 3, 50019 Sesto Fiorentino, Italy.
³ National Interuniversity Consortium of Materials Science and Technology (INSTM), Via G. Giusti 9, 50121 Firenze (FI), Italy.
⁴ Department of Industrial Engineering (DIEF), University of Florence, Via di Santa Marta 3, 50139 Florence (FI), Italy.
⁵ Istituto Officina dei Materiali-CNR, Via Pascoli s.n.c, Perugia 06123, Italy.
⁶ Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche-SPIN, Via del Politecnico, 1, Roma 00133, Italy.
⁷ Institute for the Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity, National Research Council, Bologna 40129, Italy.
⁸ Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca' Foscari University of Venice, Via Torino 155, 30170 Venice, Italy.
⁹ Center for Integrated Nanotechnologies, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545, USA.
¹⁰ Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering at University of Chicago, 5640 S Ellis Ave., Chicago, Illinois 60637, USA.
¹¹ Istituto di Struttura della Materia-CNR, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, Roma 00133, Italy.

PMID: 37681700
DOI: 10.1063/5.0151350

Abstract

A gold surface is functionalized by chemisorption of the enantiopure N,N'-bis-[2,2';5',2″]tert-thiophene-5-yl methylcyclohexane-1,2-diamine (2T3N), a chiral oligothiophene derivative, via overnight incubation in a 2T3N ethanol solution. The Au|2T3N interface is characterized by x-ray photoelectron circular dichroism and comparing x-ray photoemission spectroscopy and electro-desorption results. Charge transmission at the Au|2T3N| solution interface is characterized by recording the cyclic voltammetry of the Fe(III)/Fe(II) reversible redox couple, finding a charge transfer rate constant, k°, variation from 1 × 10-1 to 3.3 × 10-2 cm s-1, when comparing the bare Au and the Au|2T3N interfaces, respectively. The "anomalous" high value of k° found for the chiral Au|2T3N interface can be rationalized on the basis of the chiral-induced spin selectivity effect, as further proved by magnetic-conductive atomic force microscopy measurements at room temperature. A spin polarization of about 30% is found.