Northerners published a series of review papers in Reports on Progress in Physics and Nature Reviews Materials

Molecules are the basic units that make up the material world, and single-molecule science and technology can help solve many key scientific problems in the fields of physics, chemistry and life sciences, and it is of great significance
to carry out related research.

Not long ago, Professor Guo Xuefeng from the School of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering of Peking University and Professor Jia Chuancheng of Nankai University published a long review
entitled "Single-molecule nano-optoelectronics: Insights from physics" in Reports on Progress in Physics.
This review systematically introduces the basic principles of single-molecule devices, single-molecule charge effect, single-molecule spin effect, single-molecule exciton effect, single-molecule vibration effect, single-molecule structure and orbital properties from the perspective of physics, and shows that single-molecule optoelectronic devices can provide a potential solution
for the miniaturization and functionalization of silicon-based microelectronic circuits.
This is the second invited review
of single-molecule science published by Guo Xuefeng's team in a physics journal since the publication of the article in Nature Reviews Physics in 2019.
The co-corresponding authors of the work are Guo Xuefeng and Jia Chuancheng, and the co-first authors are Li Peihui, Zhou Li and Zhao Xuan
, doctoral students at Nankai University, respectively.

In addition, Guo Xuefeng, Professor Chen Hongliang of Zhejiang University and J.
Hongliang of Northwestern University Professor Fraser Stoddart published a lengthy review
entitled "Reactions in single-molecule junctions" in Nature Reviews Materials 。 This review systematically summarizes the advantages and complementarities of different single-molecule detection technologies (including single-molecule fluorescence spectroscopy, single-molecule Raman spectroscopy, ultra-high vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy, atomic force microscopy, scanning tunneling-based microscopy and carbon-based single-molecule device-based single-molecule electrical detection technology) from the methodological point of view, and highlights the latest progress and opportunities of the emerging and unique single-molecule electrical detection technology and its application in single-molecule chemical reaction kinetics.
Examples include electrode-induced reactions, environment-induced reactions, electron-catalyzed reactions, and electric field-catalyzed reactions
.
The method has the limit sensitivity of single molecule, single chemical bond, single electron and single photon, has a time resolution of microseconds and nanoseconds, can capture the intermediates masked by system experiments, reveal the change path, solvent effect and isotopic effect of species in the reaction process, realize the visualization of the dynamic process of single molecule reaction, comprehensively and statistically quantitatively analyze different parameters of reaction kinetics and thermodynamics, provide the possibility for revealing the law of single molecule photoelectric conversion and the essential mechanism of primitive chemical reaction, and develop new chemistry that is not available in books
。 The co-corresponding authors of the work are Xuefeng Guo, Hongliang Chen, and J.
Fraser Stoddart
.
Chen Hongliang is also the first author
of the article.

These studies were jointly funded
by the National Natural Science Foundation of China, the Ministry of Science and Technology, and the Beijing National Research Center for Molecular Sciences.