Gold–carbon contacts from oxidative addition of aryl iodides

Aryl halides are ubiquitous functional groups in organic chemistry, yet despite their obvious appeal as surface-binding linkers and as precursors for controlled graphene nanoribbon synthesis, they have seldom been used as such in molecular electronics. The confusion regarding the bonding of aryl iodides to Au electrodes is a case in point, with ambiguous reports of both dative Au–I and covalent Au–C contacts. Here we form single-molecule junctions with a series of oligophenylene molecular wires terminated asymmetrically with iodine and thiomethyl to show that the dative Au–I contact has a lower conductance than the covalent Au–C interaction, which we propose occurs via an in situ oxidative addition reaction at the Au surface. Furthermore, we confirm the formation of the Au–C bond by measuring an analogous series of molecules prepared ex situ with the complex AuI(PPh3) in place of the iodide. Density functional theory-based transport calculations support our experimental observations that Au–C linkages have higher conductance than Au–I linkages. Finally, we demonstrate selective promotion of the Au–C bond formation by controlling the bias applied across the junction. In addition to establishing the different binding modes of aryl iodides, our results chart a path to actively controlling oxidative addition on an Au surface using an applied bias.