Electron transfer future research issues

Here only the most relevant issues will be summarized, because several mainstream reviews [4,5,7,8,12], as well as a more personal account by Sherwood [13] based on his extensive experience with x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy of carbon fibers are available. Of special interest are the mechanisms of transfer of oxygen, protons, and electrons to and from the carbon surface. The first two mechanisms have been clarified significantly over the past few decades unfortunately, however, the transfer of electrons—the most relevant one for the applications of interest here—is not well understood therefore, here we can offer more questions than answers. But based on a careful scrutiny of the literature, we can at least formulate some of the more plausible mechanisms as an attempt to guide future research in this area. 

EH methods have been used to scan the conductance properties of molecular wires for a variety of chemical compositions [15] and the influence of the way they are interconnected to each other has also been addressed [16]. For the physically more complex issue of the influence of details of the molecule/electrode interface and related electron density polarization and charge transfer effects, DFT simulations have been performed for chemically rather simple test systems such as dithio-phenyl radicals [17] or the original proposal for the Aviram-Ratner diode [18]. For the research in this field in the future, it is expected that both methods will be further developed and... 

---