Electron hopping in conjugated molecular wires with application to solar cells
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Electron transfer through molecular wires underpins numerous research fields, ranging from single molecule electronics to fundamental biological processes and their
application in (bio)electrocatalysis. Here, we report a series of 1–3 nm long ferrocene terminated conjugated molecular wires, anchored to indium tin oxide electrodes, that exhibit an electron transfer mechanism dominated by hopping (with a β value of 0.043 Å⁻¹). We show that the nature of the electrode, namely the small energy gap between the electron donor and acceptor, explains the unexpected electron transfer mechanism in these short wires. We demonstrate the applicability of these anchored molecular wires in a tin perovskite solar cell as hole-extraction layer. We show improved performance in devices employing the molecular wire as compared to more conventional hole-extraction layers typically used in tin perovskite solar cells. This work not only opens avenues for mechanistic investigations of interfacial electron transfer using molecular wires, but also showcases their potential impact in applications e.g. in
a solar cell.
application in (bio)electrocatalysis. Here, we report a series of 1–3 nm long ferrocene terminated conjugated molecular wires, anchored to indium tin oxide electrodes, that exhibit an electron transfer mechanism dominated by hopping (with a β value of 0.043 Å⁻¹). We show that the nature of the electrode, namely the small energy gap between the electron donor and acceptor, explains the unexpected electron transfer mechanism in these short wires. We demonstrate the applicability of these anchored molecular wires in a tin perovskite solar cell as hole-extraction layer. We show improved performance in devices employing the molecular wire as compared to more conventional hole-extraction layers typically used in tin perovskite solar cells. This work not only opens avenues for mechanistic investigations of interfacial electron transfer using molecular wires, but also showcases their potential impact in applications e.g. in
a solar cell.
Date Issued
2026-04-01
Date Acceptance
2025-11-20
Citation
Nature Chemistry, 2026, 18 (4), pp.756-764
ISSN
1755-4330
Publisher
Nature Research
Start Page
756
End Page
764
Journal / Book Title
Nature Chemistry
Volume
18
Issue
4
Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2026. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
License URL
Identifier
10.1038/s41557-025-02034-0
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2026-02-09