Our research group has shown the catalytic properties of the TiO2(110)-(1×1) surface towards dehydrogenation of large organic molecules. We have deposited C60H30 molecules on this surface and we have proven that high temperature annealing leads to partial cyclodehydrogenation, which allows the use of the activated PAH’s as building blocks for larger nanostructures. In this way, the formation of fullerene-like nanodomes on this dielectric surface was observed by STM. The different stages of this on-surface chemistry were followed by different experimental techniques (STM, XPS and NEXAFS) and theoretical methods.
