Highly efficient charge transport across carbon nanobelts

Carbon nanobelts (CNBs) are a new form of nanocarbon that has promising applications in optoelectronics due to their unique belt-shaped π-conjugated systems. Recent synthetic breakthrough has led to the access to various CNBs, but their optoelectronic properties have not been explored yet. In this work, we study the electronic transport performance of a series of CNBs by incorporating them into molecular devices using the scanning tunneling microscope break junction technique. We show that, by tuning the bridging groups between the adjacent benzenes in the CNBs, we can achieve remarkably high conductance close to 0.1 G₀, nearly one order of magnitude higher than their nanoring counterpart cycloparaphenylene. Density functional theory-based calculations further elucidate the crucial role of the structural distortion played in facilitating the unique radial π-electron delocalization and charge transport across the belt-shaped carbon skeletons. These results develop a basic understanding of electronic transport properties of CNBs and lay the foundation for further exploration of CNB-based optoelectronic applications.