Intermolecular interaction enhances thermoelectric performance of molecular junctions

TL;DR

This paper investigates how intermolecular interactions in molecular junctions can significantly enhance thermoelectric properties, offering a new approach to improve organic nanoelectronic devices through molecular packing engineering.

Contribution

It demonstrates that intermolecular coupling can simultaneously increase conductance and Seebeck coefficient, boosting thermoelectric performance in self-assembled monolayers.

Findings

Electrical conductance is enhanced by intermolecular interactions.

Seebeck coefficient increases with molecular coupling.

Power factor improves by over an order of magnitude due to intermolecular effects.

Abstract

Novel organic materials formed from functional molecules are attractive for various nanoelectronic applications because they are environmentally friendly, widely available and inexpensive. Recent advancement in bottom-up fabrication methods has made it possible to design and synthesis functional molecules with desired functionalities and engineer their properties precisely. This requires deeper understanding of if the properties of building blocks e.g. single molecules can be translated to many molecule junctions in the form of self-assembled monolayers (SAM). Therefore, understanding the effect of intermolecular interaction becomes important. In this paper, we study the effect of intermolecular interactions on the charge transport and thermoelectric properties of junctions formed by parallel molecules between metallic electrodes. We demonstrate that the electrical conductance and Seebeck coefficient are enhanced simultaneously leading to more than an order of magnitude enhancement of power factor as a result of intermolecular coupling between two molecules of the same kind or different. This strategy can be used to improve the thermoelectric performance of SAMs by engineering their packing density.