Creating, varying, and growing single-site molecular contacts

The known range of chemisorption bonds forms the toolbox for the design of electrical contacts in molecular electronics devices. Double-bond contacts to technologically relevant materials would be attractive for a number of reasons. They are truly single-site, bonding to a single surface atom. They obviate the need for a thiol linkage, and they may be amenable to further modification through olefin-metathesis methodologies. We report olefin-metathesis methods for establishing varying, and growing thermally stable double-bond contacts to molybdenum carbide, a conducting material.