The interest in exploiting the unique properties of lanthanides has led to the recent design of two-dimensional coordination networks incorporating f-block elements on metallic surfaces. In order to take this field to the next step of progression, it is necessary to electronically decouple these two-dimensional architectures from the metallic surface…
The dramatic consequences that the orientation adopted by the molecular dipoles, in diverse arrays of chloroaluminum phthalocyanine (ClAlPc) on Au(111), have on the ulterior adsorption and growth of C60 are explored by means of an all scanning probe microscopy approach. The unidirectional downwards organization of the molecular dipoles at the first…
Metallosupramolecular chemical protocols are applied to in situ design dysprosium porphyrin complexes on Au(111) by sequential deposition of 2H-4FTPP species and Dy, resulting in the production of premetallated Dy-2H-4FTPP, partially metallated Dy-1H-4FTPP and fully metallated Dy-0H-4FTPP complexes, as determined by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A zero…
A new compound (1) formed by two antiparallelly disposed tetracyano thienoquinoidal units has been synthesized and studied by electrochemistry, UV/Vis-NIR, IR, EPR, and transient spectroscopy. Self-assembly of 1 on a Au(111) surface has been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy. Experiments have been rationalized by quantum chemical calculations. 1 exhibits a…
Surfaces never fail to surprise. Once more, they have demonstrated that chemistry on 2D metallic surfaces behaves differently to that on solution (3D). We have shown that highly unspecific solution-based Michael addition transforms into highly selective when carried out on a Pt(111) surface. In this way, we are able to…
Molecular chemisorption on metal surfaces has attracted great interest over the past decades. Both the characteristics of the adsorbed molecules and the surface properties govern the chemisorption processes. We have studied the role of the nature and symmetry of different metallic surfaces, Cu(110), Cu(111) and Pt(111), on the room-temperature adsorption…
The ESISNA group, in collaboration with the Nanotech@surfaces group from Empa (Switzerland), has demonstrated the catalytic role that atomic hydrogen can play in the formation of new intermolecular C-C covalent bonds on relatively inert surfaces. For this purpose, we have annealed a Au(111) surface, previously covered with different PAHs, in…
We have studied epitaxial graphene grown on SiC by chemical vapour deposition. In the work, two kinds of graphene layers were evaluated, a single layer graphene and a quasi-free-standing graphene obtained by hydrogen intercalation under the buffer layer. To evaluate the influence of the different nature of both graphene layers…
On-surface chemistry is a potential strategy focused on obtaining and developing novel nanomaterials of different dimensionalities with atomic precision. The growth mechanism is based on a bottom-up approach where molecular building blocks are evaporated onto a surface. Therefore, choosing the appropriate surface and precursor we are able to build and…
The catalytic role of metallic substrates is a perfect starting point for growing high quality graphene layers by thermal decomposition of aromatics. However, metallic substrates quench the outstanding properties that make graphene the most promising material for future applications. Thus, protocols to transfer graphene to different technologically relevant substrates are…