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, β^d. 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.