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Monitoring the Dynamic Process of Formation of Plasmonic Molecular Junctions during Single Nanoparticle Collisions
Author(s) -
Guo Jing,
Pan Jie,
Chang Shuai,
Wang Xuewen,
Kong Na,
Yang Wenrong,
He Jin
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.201704164
Subject(s) - plasmon , molecular electronics , materials science , nanotechnology , nanoparticle , monolayer , break junction , raman spectroscopy , molecular switch , colloidal gold , chemical physics , raman scattering , molecular dynamics , self assembled monolayer , plasmonic nanoparticles , molecule , optoelectronics , quantum tunnelling , chemistry , optics , computational chemistry , physics , organic chemistry
The capability to study the dynamic formation of plasmonic molecular junction is of fundamental importance, and it will provide new insights into molecular electronics/plasmonics, single‐entity electrochemistry, and nanooptoelectronics. Here, a facile method to form plasmonic molecular junctions is reported by utilizing single gold nanoparticle (NP) collision events at a highly curved gold nanoelectrode modified with a self‐assembled monolayer. By using time‐resolved electrochemical current measurement and surface‐enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy, the current changes and the evolution of interfacial chemical bonding are successfully observed in the newly formed molecular tunnel junctions during and after the gold NP “hit‐n‐stay” and “hit‐n‐run” collision events. The results lead to an in‐depth understanding of the single NP motion and the associated molecular level changes during the formation of the plasmonic molecular junctions in a single NP collision event. This method also provides a new platform to study molecular changes at the single molecule level during electron transport in a dynamic molecular tunnel junction.