Molecular thermoelectric devices

Molecular devices could offer new paths to pursue efficient thermal-to-electrical energy conversion at room temperature by controlling the alignment of the devices' energy levels directly at the nanoscale and/or by exploiting quantum interference effects.¹
A criticality of practically assessing the thermoelectric properties of molecular devices is the fabrication of devices where single molecules or molecular stacks are electrically connected to an external circuitry according to a reliable and reproducible methodology. Currently single molecules are investigated by mechanically controllable break junctions or scanning transmission microscopy based break junctions. This contribution describes (i) an innovative approach to integrate ad-hoc synthesized molecules within nanometer-scale gaps fabricated in graphene sheets², and (ii) the temperature- and gate-dependent measurements of the power factor for molecular bridging and molecular stacking junctions.
¹ P. Reddy et al., Science 315,5818,1568-1571(2007)
² M. El Abbassi et al., Nature Nanotechnology 14, 957–961(2019)