Quantitative studies of single-molecule chemistry using conductance measurement

Recent advances in single-molecule electronics hold promise to go beyond the initial idea of constructing molecular devices and offer new opportunities to investigate single-molecule chemistry using single-molecule characterization techniques. In the early stage of molecular electronics, the majority of progress is made by the qualitative analysis of electrical properties, while in recent years, the quantitative analysis of the physical and chemical behavior of single molecules attracted increasing interest. In this review, we will introduce the recent development of the single-molecule quantitative analysis technique and its applications in studying dynamic molecular configurations, redox states, single-molecule reactions, single-molecule sensing, and molecular adsorption behaviors from the single-molecule level. The single-molecule quantitative analysis technique had been developed on the basis of single-molecule conductance measurement in recent years. It offers new opportunities to study the single-molecule chemistry that occurred in the sub-10 nm confined space. Herein, we introduce the genesis of the single-molecule quantitative analysis technique and summarize recent advances by employing it in the quantitative study on adsorption, reaction, molecular movement, and assemblies at the single-molecule level. • The advances in the fabrication and conductance measurement of single-molecule junctions. • The working principle of the single-molecule quantitative analysis using break junction techniques. • The applications of single-molecule quantitative analysis on single-molecule chemistry. • The potential implications and perspective of the single-molecule quantitative analysis technique.