The Role of Polarizability in Charge Transport Across (Bio)Molecular Tunneling Junctions

The electron transport rates across biomolecular junctions can be remarkably, but the mechanisms behind this are still under debate.[1,2] Unraveling the underlying mechanisms of ET across such systems is not only interesting from a fundamental point of view, but could also lead to interesting technological applications in biomolecule-based sensors or biomolecular electronics.[3,4] We have been studying the role of polarizability in the mechanism of ET across molecular junctions and found that ET rates can increase by 4 orders of magnitude by changing the polarizability of just one atom in molecular junctions [5]. I will present our latest findings on ET rates across junctions with varying degrees of polarizability and how polarizable atoms can change the energy level alignment the junction [6] and the temperature dependency of the mechanism of ET [7] across small molecules and huge biomolecular cages with cargo (encapsuling) [8].

References
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5. Du, W.; Chen, X.; Wang, T.; Lin, Q.; Nijhuis, C.A. JACS. Accepted.
6. Chen, X.; Volkova, I.; Wang, Y.; Zhang, Z.; Nijhuis, C.A. Submitted.
7. Zinelli, R/; Soni, S.; Cornelissen, J. L. M.; Michel-Souzy, S.; Nijhuis, C. A. Biomolecules 2023, 13, 174.