Length dependence of charge transport in oligoanilines

The conductance of aniline trimers, pentamers, and heptamers has been measured in a molecular junction as a function of the oxidation state of the molecules by making measurements under electrochemical potential control. The effective electronic decay length is too small to be consistent with simple tunnel transport in the neutral molecule and is even smaller in the oxidized molecule. Thus these molecules can act as relatively high conductance links even in the absence of the interchain hopping required for metallic behavior.