Dielectric materials play a critical role in determining the operating voltage in modern-day electronics. In particular, highly polarizable and ultrathin dielectrics enable low operating voltages and thus low power consumption. A particularly promising class of materials that meet these requirements are self-assembled nanodielectrics. These organic-inorganic hybrid dielectrics exhibit exceptionally large capacitances, low leakage currents, and solution processability in ambient conditions while being only a few nanometers in thickness. The organic components of these nanodielectrics have the additional advantage that they can be tailored through organic synthesis. In this study, this synthetic flexibility was utilized to generate two molecules with virtually identical structure except for an inverted dipole direction. This work thus elucidated the role of the molecular dipole in the overall capacitive properties of self-assembled nanodielectrics.
ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, 10, 6484 (2018).
