Inflection of Resistive Switching Behavior in Atomically Precise Silver Cluster-Assembled Materials

Bottom-up design of electronic materials based on nanometer-sized building blocks requires precise control over their self-assembly process. Atomically precise metal nanoclusters (NCs) are the well-characterized building blocks for crafting tunable nanomaterials. Here, a solution-processed assembly of a newly synthesized molecular silver nanocluster (0 D Ag₁₂-NC) into a 1D nanocluster chain (1 D Ag₁₂-CAM) is mediated by 4,4'-bipyridine linker Both 0 D Ag₁₂-NC and 1 D Ag₁₂-CAM consist of Ag₁₂ core that adopts the cuboctahedron geometry protected by organic ligands. The resistive switching devices are fabricated in a sandwich-like structure of ITO (Indium tin oxide)/X/Ag (where X is either 0 D Ag₁₂-NC or 1 D Ag₁₂-CAM). The device based on 1 D Ag₁₂-CAM exhibited excellent resistive switching behaviour, enduring up to 1000 cycles and boasting a fivefold higher I_on/I_off ratio compared to the device based on the molecular 0 D Ag₁₂-NC nanocluster. Furthermore, the device based on 1 D Ag₁₂-CAM demonstrated negative differential resistance (NDR) phenomena, achieving a peak-to-valley ratio of 2.34 with a switching efficiency of 23 Ns. This work highlights the importance of interconnecting molecular nanoclusters into 1D nanocluster chains for fine-tuning resistive memory properties in futuristic electronic appliances.