Quantum interference enhanced thermopower in single-molecule thiophene junctions

Quantum interference (QI) effects, which offer unique opportunities to widely manipulate the charge transport properties in the molecular junctions, will have the potential for achieving high thermopower. Here we developed a scanning tunneling microscope break junction technique to investigate the thermopower through single-molecule thiophene junctions. We observed that the thermopower of 2,4-TP-SAc with destructive quantum interference (DQI) was nearly twice of 2,5-TP-SAc without DQI, while the conductance of the 2,4-TP-SAc was two orders of magnitude lower than that of 2,5-TP-SAc. Furthermore, we found the thermopower was almost the same by altering the anchoring group or thiophene core in the control experiments, suggesting that the QI effect is responsible for the increase of thermopower. The density functional theory (DFT) calculations are in quantitative agreement with the experimental data. Our results reveal that QI effects can provide a promising platform to enhance the thermopower of molecular junctions. (C) 2021 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Chinese Chemical Society and Institute of Materia Medica, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences.

Automated summary

The study reveals that quantum interference effects can enhance the thermopower of molecular junctions and provide opportunities to manipulate charge transport properties.