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…

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Dysprosium-directed metallosupramolecular network on graphene/Ir(111) (CHEM. COMMUN. 2021)

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…

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From high quality packing to disordered nucleation or phase separation in donor/acceptor interfaces: ClAlPc-C60 on Au(111) (PHYS. CHEM. CHEM. PHYS. 2021)

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…

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Lanthanide-porphyrin species as Kondo irreversible switches through tip-induced coordination chemistry (NANOSCALE 2021)

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…

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A Trapezoidal Octacyanoquinoid Acceptor Forms Solution and Surface Products by Antiparallel Shape Fitting with Conformational Dipole Momentum Switch (ANGEW. CHEM. 2021)

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…

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Surfaces open new routes: unexpected formation of m-PANI oligomers from p-aminophenol (ANGEW. CHEM. 2020)

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…

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Surface symmetry and reactivity rule the room-temperature adsorption of p-aminophenol (J. Phys. Chem. C 2020)

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…

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Inducing Intermolecular C-C Covalent Bonds between PAHs by Exposure to Atomic Hydrogen (JACS 2019)

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…

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Comparative structural characterization of two types of graphene layers on SiC (Appl. Surf. Sci. 2019)

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…

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On-surface chemistry: synthesis of azine derivatives with acceptor behaviour (Angew. Chem. 2018)

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…

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