Light-driven Reversible Intermolecular Proton Transfer in Single-Molecule Junction.

Photoresponsive molecular systems are essential for the molecular optoelectronic devices, but most molecular building blocks are non-photoresponsive. Herein, we employ the photoinduced proton transfer (PIPT) strategy to control the charge transport through single-molecule azulene junctions with visible light under ambient conditions, which leads to a reversible and controllable photoresponsive molecular device based on non-photoresponsive molecules and a photoacid. We further demonstrate the application of PIPT in two single-molecule AND gate and OR gate devices with electrical signal as outputs.