TY - JOUR TI - Thermoelectricity in Fullerene–Metal Heterojunctions AU - Yee, Shannon K. AU - Malen, Jonathan A. AU - Majumdar, Arun AU - Segalman, Rachel A. T2 - Nano Letters AB - Thermoelectricty in heterojunctions, where a single-molecule is trapped between metal electrodes, has been used to understand transport properties at organic–inorganic interfaces.(1) The transport in these systems is highly dependent on the energy level alignment between the molecular orbitals and the Fermi level (or work function) of the metal contacts. To date, the majority of single-molecule measurements have focused on simple small molecules where transport is dominated through the highest occupied molecular orbital.(2, 3) In these systems, energy level alignment is limited by the absence of electrode materials with low Fermi levels (i.e., large work functions). Alternatively, more controllable alignment between molecular orbitals and the Fermi level can be achieved with molecules whose transport is dominated by the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) because of readily available metals with lower work functions. Herein, we report molecular junction thermoelectric measurements of fullerene molecules (i.e., C60, PCBM, and C70) trapped between metallic electrodes (i.e., Pt, Au, Ag). Fullerene junctions demonstrate the first strongly n-type molecular thermopower corresponding to transport through the LUMO, and the highest measured magnitude of molecular thermopower to date. While the electronic conductance of fullerenes is highly variable, due to fullerene’s variable bonding geometries with the electrodes, the thermopower shows predictable trends based on the alignment of the LUMO with the work function of the electrodes. Both the magnitude and trend of the thermopower suggest that heterostructuring organic and inorganic materials at the nanoscale can further enhance thermoelectric performance, therein providing a new pathway for designing thermoelectric materials. DA - 2011/10/12/ PY - 2011 DO - 10.1021/nl2014839 DP - ACS Publications VL - 11 IS - 10 SP - 4089 EP - 4094 J2 - Nano Lett. SN - 1530-6984 UR - https://doi.org/10.1021/nl2014839 Y2 - 2021/05/06/21:09:55 KW - Energy Conversion KW - n-type KW - organic thermoelectrics ER -