Reported in this contribution are the synthesis, characterization, and charge transport properties of wire-like Ru
2(ap)
4(OPE
n), where ap is 2-anilinopyridinate and OPE is -(C
![](/images/entities/tbd1.gif)
CC
6H
4)
nSCH
2CH
2SiMe
3 with
n = 1 (
1) and 2 (
2). Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements of compound
2 inserted into a SAM of C11 thiol reveal that molecule
2 exhibits (i) the stochastic switching characteristic of wire molecules embedded in insulating SAMs and (ii) higher conductivity than the C11 thiol SAM. More importantly, analysis of the molecular electronic decay constant (
![](/images/gifchars/beta2.gif)
) exhibits a decrease of at least 15% as compared to purely organic molecular analogues. Hence, the transport characteristics of molecules can be significantly improved for nanoscale electronics through the incorporation of a Ru
2 fragment into conjugated backbone.