“Molecular Wires and Nanorings Based on Porphyrins - Synthesis and Charge Transport”

Prof Anderson won the RSC 2024 Organic Chemistry Open Prize (Pedlar Prize) for work on the synthesis and investigation of pi-conjugated macrocycles and new carbon allotropes.

Molecular wires are the most fundamental single-molecule electronic devices; as bulk thin films, they are also used as semiconductors. The small reorganisation energies of metalloporphyrins enable them to mediate efficient charge transport over distances of several nanometres, and they can be used to fabricate single-molecule transistors. It is interesting to compare charge delocalisation in linear and cyclic wires, using porphyrin nanorings prepared by template-directed synthesis. These nanorings exhibit global ring currents in a range of oxidation states, in keeping with predictions from the simple Hückel 4n+2 rule. These results provide general insight into the behaviour of highly wire-like molecules and expand the concept of aromaticity.

Harry Anderson | Department of Chemistry, University of Oxford