Charge Transport at the Metal-Organic Interface

This review focuses on the impacts of metal-organic interfacial bonding interactions on the charge-transport dynamics involved in molecular junctions as well as organically capped nanoparticles. Whereas mercapto derivatives have been used extensively as the ligands of choice to functionalize metal and nanoparticle surfaces with the formation of metal-thiolate interfacial bonds, recent studies show that metal-carbon covalent linkages may be fabricated by the deliberate design and selection of functional moieties. With enhanced electronic interactions between metals and organic ligands, the interfacial contact resistance diminishes drastically, leading to the emergence of unprecedented optical and electronic properties of the junctions and nanoparticles. These mechanistic insights are of fundamental significance in the development of molecule- and nanoparticle-based electronic devices, in particular, in light of the diverse metal-nonmetal bonding interactions that have been extensively observed in organometallic chemistry.