The Chameleonic Nature of Electron Transport through π-Stacked Systems

We investigate the electron transport properties of π-stacked benzene rings and show that when the symmetry of the system is reduced, by the addition of substituents to bind to metallic electrodes, fully eclipsed structures are not necessarily optimal and dislocated structures may show enhanced transport. Conversely, we show the transport through an infinite chain of π-stacked benzene rings reflects the full 6-fold symmetry of the system and is maximized in the fully eclipsed stack. When utilizing π-stacked systems for electron transport, the nature of the mechanism for charge injection must be considered to account for these differences in performance.