Bis(terpyridine) metal complex wires: Excellent long-range electron transfer ability and controllable intrawire redox conduction on silicon electrode

We previously contributed a review of bis(terpyridine) metal complex wires (Coord. Chem. Rev. 251 (2007) 2674) in which we described the bottom-up fabrication of complex wires on Au/mica electrodes, and intra-wire redox conduction by successive electron hopping between neighboring redox sites. The present review considers recent progress on bis(terpyridine) metal complex wire chemistry, with a focus on the long-range electron transport abilities of such wires. Potential step chronoamperometry (PSCA) is used to quantify electron transport between the terminal redox site of the wires and the Au/mica electrode, revealing an extremely small attenuation constant, βd. The second topic examined in this study is the fabrication of bis(terpyridine) metal complex wires on semiconducting silicon electrodes, which show dopant-dependent and photo-switchable intra-wire redox conduction.