Exploring the conversion of heat to electricity in single molecules

Researchers have investigated the influence of the geometry of single-molecule devices on their ability to produce electricity from heat. They fabricated devices consisting of a single molecule bridging gold electrodes and measured device electrical conductance and thermovoltage simultaneously. The devices with thiol-gold contacts displayed the highest thermovoltage when the gold-thiol bond was stretched, revealing that the thermoelectric performance of single-molecule devices can be modulated through geometry control. …read more