Electric Field-Driven Chemistry

Using external electric fields to catalyze chemical reactions is an emerging biomimetic strategy for controlling chemical reactions. Recent studies have demonstrated that electric fields can catalyze chemical reactions using the scanning tunneling microscope-based break junction (STM-BJ) technique. In this presentation, I will give an overview of the STM-BJ measurement technique and discuss advances in enabling and understanding electric-field-driven chemical reactions. Our experiments demonstrate the application of strong external electric fields while simultaneously detecting reaction products via single-molecule conductance measurements. Additionally, I will present our use of ex-situ high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to characterize reaction rates, determining the kinetics as a function of time and applied field. Lastly, I will explore the role of solvents in these measurements and interpret our findings using density functional theory-based calculations