A series of diarylacetylene (tolane) derivatives functionalised at the 4- and 4′-positions by thiolate, thioether, or amine groups capable of serving as anchor groups to secure the molecules within a molecular junction have been prepared and characterised. The series of compounds have a general form X-B-X, Y-B-Y, and X-B-Y where X and Y represent anchor groups and B the molecular bridge. The single-molecule conductance values determined by the scanning tunnelling microscope break-junction method are found to be in excellent agreement with the predictions made on the basis of a recently proposed ‘molecular circuit law’, which states ‘the conductance of an asymmetric molecule X-B-Y is the geometric mean of the conductance of the two symmetric molecules derived from it, and .’ The experimental verification of the circuit law, which holds for systems in which the constituent moieties X, B, and Y are weakly coupled and whose conductance takes place via off-resonance tunnelling, gives further confidence in the use of this relationship in the design of future compounds for use in molecular electronics research.

已经制备并表征了一系列在 4-和 4'-位被硫醇盐、硫醚或胺基团官能化的二芳基乙炔（甲苯）衍生物，这些基团能够作为锚定基团来保护分子连接内的分子。该系列化合物具有通用形式 XBX、YBY 和 XBY，其中 X 和 Y 代表锚定基团，B 代表分子桥。发现由扫描隧道显微镜断点法确定的单分子电导值与根据最近提出的“分子电路定律”所做的预测非常一致，该定律指出“不对称分子 XBY的电导”是从它导出的两个对称分子的电导的几何平均值，和.' 电路定律的实验验证适用于组成部分 X、B 和 Y 弱耦合且其电导通过偏共振隧道效应发生的系统，这进一步增强了在设计中使用这种关系的信心用于分子电子学研究的未来化合物。