scholarly journals Template-controlled on-surface synthesis of a lanthanide supernaphthalocyanine and its open-chain polycyanine counterpart

2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Qitang Fan ◽  
Jan-Niclas Luy ◽  
Martin Liebold ◽  
Katharina Greulich ◽  
Malte Zugermeier ◽  
...  

Abstract Phthalocyanines possess unique optical and electronic properties and thus are widely used in (opto)electronic devices, coatings, photodynamic therapy, etc. Extension of their π-electron systems could produce molecular materials with red-shifted absorption for a broader range of applications. However, access to expanded phthalocyanine analogues with more than four isoindoline units is challenging due to the limited synthetic possibilities. Here, we report the controlled on-surface synthesis of a gadolinium-supernaphthalocyanine macrocycle and its open-chain counterpart poly(benzodiiminoisoindoline) on a silver surface from a naphthalene dicarbonitrile precursor. Their formation is controlled by the on-surface high-dilution principle and steered by different metal templates, i.e., gadolinium atoms and the bare silver surface, which also act as oligomerization catalysts. By using scanning tunneling microscopy, photoemission spectroscopy, and density functional theory calculations, the chemical structures along with the mechanical and electronic properties of these phthalocyanine analogues with extended π-conjugation are investigated in detail.

2022 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ole Bunjes ◽  
Lucas A. Paul ◽  
Xinyue Dai ◽  
Hongyan Jiang ◽  
Tobias Claus ◽  
...  

AbstractAtomic scale studies of the anchoring of catalytically active complexes to surfaces may provide valuable insights for the design of new catalytically active hybrid systems. In this work, the self-assembly of 1D, 2D and 3D structures of the complex fac-Re(bpy)(CO)3Cl (bpy = 2,2′-bipyridine), a CO2 reduction catalyst, on the Ag(001) surface are studied by a combination of low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculations. Infrared and sum frequency generation spectroscopy confirm that the complex remains chemically intact under sublimation. Deposition of the complexes onto the silver surface at 300 K leads to strong local variations in the resulting surface coverage on the nanometer scale, indicating that in the initial phase of deposition a large fraction of the molecules is desorbing from the surface. Low coverage regions show a decoration of step edges aligned along the crystal’s symmetry axes <110>. These crystallographic directions are found to be of major importance to the binding of the complexes to the surface. Moreover, the interaction between the molecules and the substrate promotes the restructuring of surface steps along these directions. Well-aligned and decorated steps are found to act as nucleation point for monolayer growth (2D) before 3D growth starts.


Nanoscale ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 7 (7) ◽  
pp. 3055-3059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuanxu Ma ◽  
Haifeng Sun ◽  
Hongjian Du ◽  
Jufeng Wang ◽  
Aidi Zhao ◽  
...  

We present an investigation of the structural and electronic properties of a linear periodic chain of pentagon-heptagon pairs in single-layer graphene/SiO2 using scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, joint with density functional theory calculations.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 551
Author(s):  
Petros-Panagis Filippatos ◽  
Nikolaos Kelaidis ◽  
Maria Vasilopoulou ◽  
Dimitris Davazoglou ◽  
Alexander Chroneos

In the present study, we performed density functional theory calculations (DFT) to investigate structural changes and their impact on the electronic properties in halogen (F, Cl, Br, and I) doped tin oxide (SnO2). We performed calculations for atoms intercalated either at interstitial or substitutional positions and then calculated the electronic structure and the optical properties of the doped SnO2. In all cases, a reduction in the bandgap value was evident, while gap states were also formed. Furthermore, when we insert these dopants in interstitial and substitutional positions, they all constitute a single acceptor and donor, respectively. This can also be seen in the density of states through the formation of gap states just above the valence band or below the conduction band, respectively. These gap states may contribute to significant changes in the optical and electronic properties of SnO2, thus affecting the metal oxide’s suitability for photovoltaics and photocatalytic devices. In particular, we found that iodine (I) doping of SnO2 induces a high dielectric constant while also reducing the oxide’s bandgap, making it more efficient for light-harvesting applications.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kuanysh Zhussupbekov ◽  
Lida Ansari ◽  
John B. McManus ◽  
Ainur Zhussupbekova ◽  
Igor V. Shvets ◽  
...  

AbstractThe properties and performance of two-dimensional (2D) materials can be greatly affected by point defects. PtTe2, a 2D material that belongs to the group 10 transition metal dichalcogenides, is a type-II Dirac semimetal, which has gained a lot of attention recently due to its potential for applications in catalysis, photonics, and spintronics. Here, we provide an experimental and theoretical investigation of point defects on and near the surface of PtTe2. Using scanning tunneling microscopy and scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) measurements, in combination with first-principle calculations, we identify and characterize five common surface and subsurface point defects. The influence of these defects on the electronic structure of PtTe2 is explored in detail through grid STS measurements and complementary density functional theory calculations. We believe these findings will be of significance to future efforts to engineer point defects in PtTe2, which is an interesting and enticing approach to tune the charge-carrier mobility and electron–hole recombination rates, as well as the site reactivity for catalysis.


2022 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yan Shao ◽  
Wei Gao ◽  
Hejin Yan ◽  
Runlai Li ◽  
Ibrahim Abdelwahab ◽  
...  

AbstractMolecularly soft organic-inorganic hybrid perovskites are susceptible to dynamic instabilities of the lattice called octahedral tilt, which directly impacts their carrier transport and exciton-phonon coupling. Although the structural phase transitions associated with octahedral tilt has been extensively studied in 3D hybrid halide perovskites, its impact in hybrid 2D perovskites is not well understood. Here, we used scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) to directly visualize surface octahedral tilt in freshly exfoliated 2D Ruddlesden-Popper perovskites (RPPs) across the homologous series, whereby the steric hindrance imposed by long organic cations is unlocked by exfoliation. The experimentally determined octahedral tilts from n = 1 to n = 4 RPPs from STM images are found to agree very well with out-of-plane surface octahedral tilts predicted by density functional theory calculations. The surface-enhanced octahedral tilt is correlated to excitonic redshift observed in photoluminescence (PL), and it enhances inversion asymmetry normal to the direction of quantum well and promotes Rashba spin splitting for n > 1.


2021 ◽  
Vol 118 (17) ◽  
pp. e2021203118
Author(s):  
Biao Yang ◽  
Martin Uphoff ◽  
Yi-Qi Zhang ◽  
Joachim Reichert ◽  
Ari Paavo Seitsonen ◽  
...  

Iron silicide (FeSi) is a fascinating material that has attracted extensive research efforts for decades, notably revealing unusual temperature-dependent electronic and magnetic characteristics, as well as a close resemblance to the Kondo insulators whereby a coherent picture of intrinsic properties and underlying physics remains to be fully developed. For a better understanding of this narrow-gap semiconductor, we prepared and examined FeSi(110) single-crystal surfaces of high quality. Combined insights from low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory calculations (DFT) indicate an unreconstructed surface termination presenting rows of Fe–Si pairs. Using high-resolution tunneling spectroscopy (STS), we identify a distinct asymmetric electronic gap in the sub-10 K regime on defect-free terraces. Moreover, the STS data reveal a residual density of states in the gap regime whereby two in-gap states are recognized. The principal origin of these features is rationalized with the help of the DFT-calculated band structure. The computational modeling of a (110)-oriented slab notably evidences the existence of interfacial intragap bands accounting for a markedly increased density of states around the Fermi level. These findings support and provide further insight into the emergence of surface metallicity in the low-temperature regime.


Science ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 346 (6214) ◽  
pp. 1215-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Bliem ◽  
E. McDermott ◽  
P. Ferstl ◽  
M. Setvin ◽  
O. Gamba ◽  
...  

Iron oxides play an increasingly prominent role in heterogeneous catalysis, hydrogen production, spintronics, and drug delivery. The surface or material interface can be performance-limiting in these applications, so it is vital to determine accurate atomic-scale structures for iron oxides and understand why they form. Using a combination of quantitative low-energy electron diffraction, scanning tunneling microscopy, and density functional theory calculations, we show that an ordered array of subsurface iron vacancies and interstitials underlies the well-known (2×2)R45° reconstruction of Fe3O4(001). This hitherto unobserved stabilization mechanism occurs because the iron oxides prefer to redistribute cations in the lattice in response to oxidizing or reducing environments. Many other metal oxides also achieve stoichiometry variation in this way, so such surface structures are likely commonplace.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mykola Telychko ◽  
Lulu Wang ◽  
Chia-Hsiu Hsu ◽  
Guangwu Li ◽  
Xinnan Peng ◽  
...  

Controllable fabrication of the enantiospecific molecular superlattices is a matter of imminent scientific and technological interest. Herein, we demonstrate that long-range superlattice chirality in molecular self-assemblies can be tailored by tuning the interplay of weak intermolecular non-covalent interactions. Different chiral recognition patterns are achieved in the two molecular self-assemblies comprised by two molecular enantiomers with identical steric conformations, derived from the hexaphenylbenzene – the smallest star-shaped polyphenylene. By means of high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy measurements, we demonstrate that functionalization of star-shaped polyphenylene with fluorine (F) atoms leads to the formation of molecular self-assemblies with the distinct long-range chiral recognition patterns. We employed the density functional theory calculations to quantify F-mediated lone pair F ···π, C-H··· F, F···F interactions attributed to the tunable enantiospecific molecular self-organizations. Our findings underpin a viable route to tailor long-range chiral recognition patterns in supramolecular assemblies by engineering the weak non-covalent intermolecular interactions.


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