Self-organized and Cu-coordinated surface linear polymerization

Qing Li, Jonathan R. Owens, Chengbo Han, Bobby G. Sumpter, Wenchang Lu, Jerzy Bernholc, V. Meunier, Peter Maksymovych, Miguel Fuentes-Cabrera, Minghu Pan

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    24 Scopus citations

    Abstract

    We demonstrate a controllable surface-coordinated linear polymerization of long-chain poly(phenylacetylenyl)s that are self-organized into a "circuit-board" pattern on a Cu(100) surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy (STM/S) corroborated by ab initio calculations, reveals the atomistic details of the molecular structure, and provides a clear signature of electronic and vibrational properties of the poly(phenylacetylene)s chains. Notably, the polymerization reaction is confined epitaxially to the copper lattice, despite a large strain along the polymerized chain that subsequently renders it metallic. Polymerization and depolymerization reactions can be controlled locally at the nanoscale by using a charged metal tip. This control demonstrates the possibility of precisely accessing and controlling conjugated chain-growth polymerization at low temperature. This finding may lead to the bottom-up design and realization of sophisticated architectures for molecular nano-devices.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number2102
    JournalScientific Reports
    Volume3
    DOIs
    StatePublished - 2013

    Funding

    This research was conducted at the Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences (CNMS), which is sponsored at Oak Ridge National Laboratory by the Scientific User Facilities Division, Office of Basic Energy Sciences, U. S. Department of Energy. The work at NCSU was supported by DOE grant DE-FG02-98ER45685. The computations were performed using the resources of the CNMS and the National Center for Computational Sciences at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. This research also used resources of the National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, which is supported by the Office of Science of the U.S. Department of Energy under Contract No. DE-AC02-05CH11231. JO and VM acknowledge support from the Office of Naval Research.

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