A Roadmap for Mechanically Interlocked Molecular Junctions at Nanoscale

Abstract

The beauty and utility of mechanically interlocked architectures have received considerable notice from scientists in the past several decades. Plentiful scientific and technological achievements have been made and developed because of conjoining mechanically interlocked molecules (MIMs) and molecular electronic devices at nanoscale. The interaction mechanisms and translational dynamics of various MIMs, e.g., rotaxanes, catenanes, and daisy chains, have been investigated systemically through different experimental methods. On account of the recent advances of single-molecule techniques, the electrical and mechanical performance of mechanically interlocked molecular junctions (MIMJs) or nanodevices have been explored in a timely manner. In this Review, we survey the field of MIMs from a perspective of unique structural properties including topological features, translational dynamics, bistable switching properties, insulation effects, and dynamic stability present in MIMs. We then give a fundamental description of electron transport mechanisms in MIMJs for three different nanodevice geometries: (i) monolayer switching tunnel junctions (MSTJs), (ii) single-molecule junctions (SMJs) based on MIMs, and (iii) real-time transistor-like platforms.