Functionalized Diamondoids and Their Electronic Properties for Field Emission

美德联合提议将有机化学与分子电子学结合在一起。最近发现的一类所谓的类金刚石（纳米级的端氢金刚石）是理想的研究对象，因为它既具有挑战性，又极具前景，而且它将两个在其他方面不相关的科学团体和学科联系在一起。从宏观钻石到纳米钻石的尺寸减小的影响将通过a)制造功能衍生物（醇、硫醇、酸、胺、二烯等）来彻底检查，这些衍生物允许纳米钻石附着在表面（金、铝、硅等）上，b)测量它们的电子特性。一个特别重要的特征是金刚石类化合物的负电子亲和力，这将使它们成为大量应用的理想电子发射器。这两个方面也描述了贾斯图斯-李比希大学吉森分校和斯坦福大学加贝尔先进材料实验室的研究小组之间的工作分配。没有一个团队可以单独解决我们的建议，因为一方面需要大量的专业知识来提供适当的功能化碳氢化合物，另一方面需要高质量的分子电子测量。计算化学研究对实验测量结果进行了补充。关键词：烷烃功能化，类金刚石，分子电子学，负电子亲和材料。

The US-German joint proposal brings together organic chemistry with molecular electronics. The recently discovered class of so-called diamondoids (nanometer-sized hydrogen-terminated diamonds) is the ideal subject because it is challenging as well as highly promising and because it joins two otherwise unrelated scientific groups and disciplines. The effects in the reduction in size in going from macroscopic diamond to nanodiamonds will be thoroughly examined by a) making functional derivatives (alcohols, thiols, acids, amines, dienes, and others) that allows the attachment of the nanodiamonds to surfaces (Au, Al, Si etc.) and b) measuring their electronic properties. One particularly important feature is the proposed negative electron affinity of diamondoids that would make them ideal electron emitters for a large number of applications. These two aspects also describe the work distribution between the groups at the Justus-Liebig University Giessen and the Gabelle Lab for Advanced Materials at Stanford University. No group alone could tackle what we propose because significant expertise is required to provide appropriately functionalized hydrocarbons on one side and high-quality molecular electronics measurements on the other. The mutual work is complemented by computational chemistry studies supporting the experimental measurements. Keywords: alkane functionalization, diamondoids, molecular electronics, negative electron affinity materials.