Structure-Property Relationships in Molecular Electronics

This thesis describes the synthesis of organic and organometallic compounds designed to test theories of molecular conductance, and studies of their electrical behavior within molecular junctions. The deeper understanding of charge transport that arises allows molecular design strategies to extend beyond ideas based on coherent tunneling and explore concepts such as quantum interference, redox-gated molecular electronic response, and molecule-electrode contact and coupling to the electrical response of the junction. In addition to the molecular junction-based measurements of conductivity, investigations of the electronic structures and electrochemical properties of these molecular candidates using electrochemical, spectroelectrochemical and computational methods have been undertaken.