Instead, defects in the bottom electrodes (such as grain boundaries, vacancy islands, or step edges) cause disorder in the SAMs and variations in J. This suggests that to improve the molecular junctions, we need to further optimize the substrate morphology (e.g., by using single crystal electrode) and SAMs structural quality. Once optimized, our method can potentially be greatly beneficial for molecular electronics studies since in principle it is possible to contact SAM on a single grain with micron-sized droplet probes. We chose not to perform any electrical measurements in ethanol because ethanol can become slightly conductive in the presence of contaminants resulting in large background current. 66