New Development in the Preparation of Micro/Nano-Wires of Molecular (Magnetic) Conductors

A lot of molecular (magnetic) conductors are prepared largely using charge-transfer (CT) salts of donor molecules with acceptor molecules or nonmagnetic or magnetic anions such as metal halides and oxides; their CT salts are usually obtained as bulk crystals, which are used to elucidate the electrical conducting (magnetic) properties. In contrast, a small number of micro/nano-crystals of the molecular (magnetic) conductors, especially micro/nano-wires, are known, of which highly conducting nanowires are necessary as a key component in the development of the next generation of nano-size transistors and spin-transistors. Very recently, we succeeded in preparing highly conductive micro/nano-wires of CT salts between bent donor molecules developed by one of the author’s group and magnetic FeX4 (X = Cl, Br) ions: (1) by electrochemical oxidation of the bent donor molecules with a silicon wafer electrode coated with a phospholipid multi-lamellar structure as well as, (ii) by electrochemical oxidation of the bent donor molecules with a large arc structure, in the presence of NBu4FeX4 supporting electrolytes. OPEN ACCESS Materials 2010, 3 1641 This article reviews template-free and template-assisted methods developed so far for the preparation of micro/nano-wires of molecular (magnetic) conductors along with our new methods. The conducting properties of these micro/nano-wires are compared with those of the corresponding bulk crystals.