The influence of reaction conditions on the growth of MOFs on surfaces

The importance of the reaction conditions has been confirmed in this study, where following an on-surface synthesis approach on the same surface and with the same precursor, two different metal-organic frameworks were obtained. The distinction comes from the different synthesis protocol of the controlled growth of both metal-organic nanostructures. Thus,…

Continue reading

Why individual heptagonal rings are not stable on surfaces? (Nanomaterials 2022)

Graphene nanoribbons, GNRs, – narrow stripes of graphene – are predicted to exhibit attractive electronic properties for the fabrication of nanoscale electronic devices. This 1D material shows semiconducting properties that can be tuned by modifying its length, width, or topology border; but also, with the presence of defects in form…

Continue reading

Decoupling epitaxial graphene from metals by electrochemical oxidation (Carbon 2018)

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…

Continue reading

An atomic-scale look to graphene edge states (Nanoscale 2017)

Graphene edges are known to present localized electronic states that depend on the exact atomic configuration of the graphene border. It has been predicted that zigzag-ended and chiral-ended graphene nanostructures develop spatially and spectrally localized edge states around the Fermi level. However, experimental evidence remains scarce as atomic-scale investigations of…

Continue reading

On-surface chemistry: (cyclo)dehydrogenation of PAH catalysed by coinage metal surfaces (Phys. Chem. Chem. Phys. 2017)

New nanoarchitectures can be built from polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH) by exploiting the catalytic properties of some metal surfaces. Actually, this bottom-up approach allows the formation of nanostructures with different dimensionality from the same precursor as a consequence of the diffusion of the PAH on the surface. Thus, by selecting…

Continue reading

New method to synthesize graphene by using C60 as carbon source (Carbon 2017)

In this work, we describe a new protocol to grow high-quality graphene by physical vapour deposition (PVD) using C60 molecules evaporated in ultra high vacuum conditions (UHV) on Cu foils substrates. The quality of the resulting graphene layer has been assessed by the combination of complementary surface characterization techniques. Additionally,…

Continue reading

Unveiling the structural and electronic properties of epitaxial graphene superstructures on Pt(111): the role of the pinning points

Graphene growth on metal surfaces is one of the most promising routes towards scalable production of high-quality graphene suitable for industrial applications. Conventionally, the growth of graphene is carried out on weakly interacting surfaces – typically Cu foils – where the substrate plays a double role: first, as a catalyst;…

Continue reading