The interdisciplinary field of molecular electronics, describes the use of molecules in elec-tronic devices and deals with the central question of how electrons move through a single molecule. The research spans chemistry, physics and material science and is focused on the investigation of the structure-property relationship of functional molecules as well as their implementation in an electrical circuit. Thereby, the chemists’ role is to synthesize tailormade compounds at a molecular level of control that mimic the features of conven-tional electronic components such as rectifiers, switches or transistors.
This PhD thesis is mainly focused on the design and syntheses of ferrocene grafted phe-nylethynyl backbones that are rotationally restricted through cyclization. The redox-active ferrocene unit acts as decisive functional entity in the construct. Alteration in the oxida-tion state of ferrocene has a direct influence on the molecular energy level and thus the electronic properties of the molecule. The ability to externally address and control the en-ergy level of the molecule is a central feature and of great importance for the construction of components for single molecule electronics.
The thesis is segmented into 4 chapters, whereat chapter 1 - 3 discuss the synthesis and characterization of the functional molecules and chapter 4 provides the experimental de-tails of all compounds described throughout the thesis. Each chapter is introduced indi-vidually and the projects are put into the scientific context which is relevant to the de-scribed work and illustrated with a few examples
