ELECTRICAL PROPERTIES OF ALPHA-CYCLODEXTIN METAL IODIDE INCLUSION COMPOUNDS.

In order to build molecular scale mechanical or electronic devices it will be necessary to understand in atomic detail the general principles of molecular recognition and molecular self-assembly. Host-guest chemistry is essential for this understanding. The following short paper is a survey of electronic properties of molecular self-assembled cyclodextrin-metal iodide host-guest compounds. Alpha-cyclodextrin has the ability to crystallize into stacked channels which can act as hosts for the confinement of small guest molecules. The results of electrical studies on fifteen metal iodide cyclodextrin complexes are reported. These complexes consist of chains of polyiodide in the host lattice and metal atoms in the interspace regions. The conductivity is shown to vary, depending on the metal, between 10 sup (-10) to 10 sup (-4) S/cm at room temperature. When the samples are doped with excess iodine the conductivity decreases by about one order of magnitude for each metal iodide complex.