It is known that the electrical conductance of single molecules can be controlled in a deterministic manner by chemically varying their anchor groups to external electrodes. Here, by employing synthetic methodologies to vary the terminal anchor groups around aromatic anthracene cores, and by forming self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of the resulting molecules, we demonstrate that this method of control can be translated into cross-plane SAM-on-gold molecular films. The cross-plane conductance of SAMs formed from anthracene-based molecules with four different combinations of anchors are measured to differ by a factor of approximately 3 in agreement with theoretical predictions. We also demonstrate that the Seebeck coefficient of such films can be boosted by more than an order of magnitude by an appropriate choice of anchor groups and that both positive and negative Seebeck coefficients can be realised. This demonstration that the thermoelectric properties of SAMs are controlled by their anchor groups represents a critical step towards functional ultra-thin-film devices for future molecular-scale electronics.

中文翻译：

---

调节基于蒽的自组装单分子膜的热电性能

已知可以通过化学方式改变单分子对外部电极的锚定基团来确定性地控制单分子的电导率。在这里，通过采用合成方法来改变芳香族蒽核心周围的末端锚基，并通过形成所得分子的自组装单层（SAM），我们证明了这种控制方法可以转化为跨平面SAM-on-金分子膜。由蒽基分子与四种不同的锚定组合形成的SAMs的跨面电导经测量与理论预测相差约3倍。我们还表明，这种膜的塞贝克系数可被多于一个数量级的通过锚定基团的适当选择，并且可以实现正的和负的塞贝克系数提高。SAM的热电特性受其锚固基团控制的这一证明，是朝着未来的分子规模电子技术发展功能性超薄膜器件的关键一步。