Measuring Level Alignment at the Metal–Molecule Interface by In Situ Electrochemical ¹³C NMR

A new technique to measure energy-level alignment at a metal-molecule interface between the Fermi level of the metal and the frontier orbitals of the molecule is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The method, which combines the electrochemistry of organo-ligand-stabilized Au nanoparticles with (13) C NMR spectroscopy (i.e. in situ electrochemical NMR), enables measuring both occupied and unoccupied states.