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The Emergence of Covalent On-Surface Polymerization

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On-Surface Synthesis

Part of the book series: Advances in Atom and Single Molecule Machines ((AASMM))

Abstract

The covalent linking of molecular building blocks directly in the two-dimensional confinement of a surface, the so-called on-surface polymerization, has developed rapidly in the last years since it represents a reliable strategy to grow functional molecular nanostructures in a controlled fashion. Here, we review the growth of such structures via on-surface Ullmann coupling and highlight the major chemical and physical aspects. These systems are typically studied by scanning tunneling microscopy that allows exploration of the initial monomer species, intermediate products and final nanostructures with sub-molecular spatial resolution. In this way, the chemical structures of the ex situ synthesized molecular building blocks are directly correlated with the outcome of the chemical reaction. We also present examples with different monomer species in view of growing heterogeneous molecular structures as well as the importance of the molecular interaction with the template surface as a further key parameter to control the molecular diffusion and tune the final molecular architecture.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Physical Chemistry, Fritz-Haber-Institute of the Max-Planck-Society, 14195, Berlin, Germany

    Christophe Nacci & Leonhard Grill

  2. Department of Physical Chemistry, University of Graz, 8010, Graz, Austria

    Christophe Nacci & Leonhard Grill

  3. Department of Chemistry, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, 12489, Berlin, Germany

    Stefan Hecht

Authors
  1. Christophe Nacci
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  2. Stefan Hecht
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  3. Leonhard Grill
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Stefan Hecht or Leonhard Grill .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. CEMES-CNRS, Toulouse, France

    André Gourdon

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Nacci, C., Hecht, S., Grill, L. (2016). The Emergence of Covalent On-Surface Polymerization. In: Gourdon, A. (eds) On-Surface Synthesis. Advances in Atom and Single Molecule Machines. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-26600-8_1

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