Heather L. Tierney

Isolated metal atom geometries as a strategy for selective heterogeneous hydrogenations.

Tuning Hydrogen Adsorption Heterogeneous metal catalysts for hydrogenating unsaturated organic compounds need to bind molecular hydrogen strongly enough that it dissociates and forms adsorbed hydrogen atoms, but must not bind these atoms too strongly, or the transfer to the organic molecule will be impeded. Kyriakou et al. (p. 1209) examined surface alloy catalysts created when palladium (Pd) atoms are adsorbed on a copper (Cu) surface using scanning tunneling microscopy and desorption techniques under ultrahigh vacuum conditions. The Pd atoms could bind hydrogen dissociatively—which, under these conditions, the Cu surfaces could not—allowing the Cu surface to take up adsorbed hydrogen atoms. These weakly bound hydrogen atoms were able to selectively hydrogenate styrene and acetylene. Palladium atoms adsorbed on a copper surface activate hydrogen adsorption for subsequent hydrogenation reactions. Facile dissociation of reactants and weak binding of intermediates are key requirements for efficient and selective catalysis. However, these two variables are intimately linked in a way that does not generally allow the optimization of both properties simultaneously. By using desorption measurements in combination with high-resolution scanning tunneling microscopy, we show that individual, isolated Pd atoms in a Cu surface substantially lower the energy barrier to both hydrogen uptake on and subsequent desorption from the Cu metal surface. This facile hydrogen dissociation at Pd atom sites and weak binding to Cu allow for very selective hydrogenation of styrene and acetylene as compared with pure Cu or Pd metal alone.

Experimental demonstration of a single-molecule electric motor

For molecules to be used as components in molecular machines, methods that couple individual molecules to external energy sources and that selectively excite motion in a given direction are required. Significant progress has been made in the construction of molecular motors powered by light and by chemical reactions, but electrically driven motors have not yet been built, despite several theoretical proposals for such motors. Here we report that a butyl methyl sulphide molecule adsorbed on a copper surface can be operated as a single-molecule electric motor. Electrons from a scanning tunnelling microscope are used to drive the directional motion of the molecule in a two-terminal setup. Moreover, the temperature and electron flux can be adjusted to allow each rotational event to be monitored at the molecular scale in real time. The direction and rate of the rotation are related to the chiralities of both the molecule and the tip of the microscope (which serves as the electrode), illustrating the importance of the symmetry of the metal contacts in atomic-scale electrical devices.

A Quantitative Single-Molecule Study of Thioether Molecular Rotors

This paper describes a fundamental, single-molecule study of the motion of a set of thioethers supported on Au surfaces. Thioethers constitute a simple, robust system with which molecular rotation can be actuated both thermally and mechanically. Low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy allowed the measurement of the rotation of individual molecules as a function of temperature and the quantification of both the energetic barrier and pre-exponential factor of the motion. The results suggest that movement of the second CH(2) group from the S atom over the surface is responsible for the barrier. Through a series of single-molecule manipulation experiments, we have switched the rotation on and off reversibly by moving the molecules toward or away from one another. Arrhenius plots for individual dibutyl sulfide molecules reveal that the torsional barrier to rotation is approximately 1.2 kJ/mol, in good agreement with the temperature at which the molecules appearance changes from a linear to a hexagonal shape in the STM images. The thioether backbone constitutes an excellent test bed for studying the details of molecular rotation at the single-molecule level.

Atomic-Scale Geometry and Electronic Structure of Catalytically Important Pd/Au Alloys

Pd/Au bimetallic alloys catalyze many important reactions ranging from the synthesis of vinyl acetate and hydrogen peroxide to the oxidation of carbon monoxide and trimerization of acetylene. It is known that the atomic-scale geometry of these alloys can dramatically affect both their reactivity and selectivity. However, there is a distinct lack of experimental characterization and quantification of ligand and ensemble effects in this system. Low-temperature, ultrahigh vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy is used to investigate the atomic-scale geometry of Pd/Au111 near-surface alloys and to spectroscopically probe their local electronic structure. The results reveal that the herringbone reconstruction of Au111 provides entry sites for the incorporation of Pd atoms in the Au surface and that the degree of mixing is dictated by the surface temperature. At catalytically relevant temperatures the distribution of low coverages of Pd in the alloy is random, except for a lack of nearest neighbor pairs in both the surface and subsurface sites. Scanning tunneling spectroscopy is used to examine the electronic structure of the individual Pd atoms in surface and subsurface sites. This work reveals that in both surface and subsurface locations, Pd atoms display a very similar electronic structure to the surrounding Au atoms. However, individual surface and subsurface Pd atoms are depleted of charge in a very narrow region at the band edge of the Au surface state. dI/dV images of the phenomena demonstrate the spatial extent of this electronic perturbation.

An Atomic‐Scale View of Palladium Alloys and their Ability to Dissociate Molecular Hydrogen

Palladium and its alloys play a central role in a wide variety of industrially important applications such as hydrogen reactions, separations, storage devices, and fuel‐cell components. Alloy compositions are complex and often heterogeneous at the atomic‐scale and the exact mechanisms by which many of these processes operate have yet to be discovered. Herein, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) has been used to investigate the atomic‐scale structure of Pd–Au and Pd–Cu bimetallics created by depositing Pd on both Au(111) and Cu(111) single crystals at a variety of surface temperatures. We demonstrated that individual, isolated Pd atoms in an inert Cu matrix are active for the dissociation of hydrogen and subsequent spillover onto Cu sites. Our results indicated that H spillover was facile on Pd–Cu at 420 K but that no H was found under the same H2 flux on a Pd–Au sample with identical atomic composition and geometry. In the case of Au, significant H uptake was only observed when larger ensembles of Pd were present in the form of nanoparticles. We report experimental evidence for hydrogen’s ability to reverse the tendency of Pd to segregate into the Au surface at catalytically relevant temperatures and our STM images reveal a novel H‐induced striped structure in which Pd atoms aggregated on top of the surface in regularly spaced rows. These results demonstrate the powerful influence an inert substrate has on the catalytic activity of Pd atoms supported in or on its surface and reveal how the atomic‐scale geometry of Pd–Au alloys is greatly affected by the presence of hydrogen.

Time-resolved studies of individual molecular rotors.

Thioether molecular rotors show great promise as nanoscale models for exploring the fundamental limits of thermally and electrically driven molecular rotation. By using time-resolved measurements which increase the time resolution of the scanning tunneling microscope we were able to record the dynamics of individual thioether molecular rotors as a function of surface structure, rotor chemistry, thermal energy and electrical excitation. Our results demonstrate that the local surface structure can have a dramatic influence on the energy landscape that the molecular rotors experience. In terms of rotor structure, altering the length of the rotors alkyl tails allowed the origin of the barrier to rotation to be more fully understood. Finally, time-resolved measurement of electrically excited rotation revealed that vibrational excitation of a C-H bond in the rotors alkyl tail is an efficient channel with which to excite rotation, and that the excitation is a one-electron process.

Mode‐Selective Electrical Excitation of a Molecular Rotor

Understanding and actuating the rotation of individual molecules on surfaces is a crucial step towards the development of nanoscale devices such as fluid pumps, sensors, delay lines, and microwave signaling applications. Recently a new, stable and robust system of molecular rotors consisting of thioether molecules (RSR) bound to metal surfaces has offered a method with which to study the rotation of individual molecules as a function of temperature, molecular chemistry, proximity of neighboring molecules, and surface structure. Arrhenius plots for the rotation of dibutyl sulfide yielded a rotational barrier of 1.2 0.1 kJ mol . While these results revealed that small amounts of thermal energy are capable of inducing rotation, thermodynamics dictates that thermal energy alone cannot be used to perform useful work in the absence of a temperature gradient. Therefore, for molecules to meet their full potential as components in molecular machines, methods for coupling them to external sources of energy that selectively excite the desired motions must be devised. Herein we describe a study of the electrical excitation of individual dibutyl sulfide (Bu2S) molecular rotors with electrons from a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) tip. Action spectroscopy was used to measure the effect of electron energy on the rate of rotation. The results revealed that tunneling electrons above a threshold energy excited a C H vibration in the rotor s alkyl tail that coupled selectively to rotation of the whole molecule. The Au ACHTUNGTRENNUNG{111} 22 p3 surface chosen for the study consists of domains of surface atoms with both hcp and fcc packing separated by narrow soliton walls with an intermediate packing structure. Therefore, molecular rotors in both areas were studied independently and the results were compared. For simplicity we only present data for fcc-adsorbed rotors in this communication (see Supporting Information for hcp data). Figure 1 a shows an STM image of an individual dibutyl sulfide molecular rotor on a Au ACHTUNGTRENNUNG{111} surface at 7 K. When imaging at 7 K under non-perturbative conditions (V=0.3 V, I= 10 pA), the molecules were static and appeared in STM images as crescent-shaped protrusions. Figure 1 b shows an image of a di-

Adsorption, interaction, and manipulation of dibutyl sulfide on cu{111}.

This paper describes a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) study of a simple thioether, dibutyl sulfide, on a Cu{111} surface. The literature is full of data about thiol-based monolayers; however, relatively little is known about thioether self-assembly. Thioethers are more resilient to oxidation than thiols and offer the potential for control over nanoscale assembly in two dimensions parallel to the surface. Therefore, robust assembly schemes derived from thioethers may offer a new class of self-assembled systems with novel and useful properties. At a medium surface coverage and a temperature of 78 K, dibutyl sulfide grows in small, highly ordered islands in which the ordering is driven by both the molecule-surface dative bonds and intermolecular van der Waals bonding. Annealing to around 120 K allows diffusion and reordering of the molecules and the formation of large, very well ordered domains with little or no defects. We show high-resolution images of the molecular arrays and propose a model for their packing structure. These data suggest the potential use of thioethers for a variety of self-assembly applications that require control over molecular spacing parallel to the surface. We also show how the STM tip can be used to manipulate individual molecules within the ordered structures and that the arrays can act as a nanoscale abacus. The range of motion of the manipulated molecules inside a regular array reflects the potential imposed upon them by their neighbors.

Dimethyl Sulfide on Cu{111}: Molecular Self-Assembly and Submolecular Resolution Imaging

The literature contains many studies of thiol-based, self-assembled monolayers (RSH); however, thioethers (RSR) have barely begun to be explored, despite having the potential advantages of being more resistant to oxidation and allowing for the control of self-assembly parallel to the surface. This paper describes a low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy investigation of dimethyl sulfide on Cu{111}. Previous work on the adsorption of dibutyl sulfide on Cu{111} revealed that intermolecular van der Waals interactions directed the parallel ordering of dibutyl sulfide molecules in linear rows. Upon annealing to 120 K, small dibutyl sulfide domains reordered into very large, ordered domains free of defects. The current study reveals the effect of the shorter alkyl chain length of dimethyl sulfide on both the rate of diffusion and the packing structure of the molecule. At a medium surface coverage and at 78 K, it was found that dimethyl sulfide is mobile and forms large, ordered islands without the 120 K annealing that was required for dibutyl sulfide to arrange. Also, the molecular packing structure evolves from quadrupole-quadrupole interactions and results in a perpendicular arrangement of neighboring molecules instead of the parallel arrangement observed for dibutyl sulfide. We show high-resolution images of the dimethyl sulfide islands in which submolecular features are revealed. These high-resolution data allow us to propose a structural model for the adsorption site of each dimethyl sulfide molecule within the ordered structures. These results demonstrate that the length of the alkyl side chain is an important factor in determining how thioethers self-assemble on metal surfaces.

Organic thin film induced substrate restructuring: An STM study of the interaction of naphtho[2,3-a]pyrene Au(111) herringbone reconstruction

The structural properties and the interaction strength of naphtho[2,3-a]pyrene (NP), a promising multifunctional organic material for optoelectronic devices, has been studied on Au(111) by means of scanning tunnelling microscopy. The perturbation of the native herringbone reconstruction of the pristine Au(111) surface was used to assess the interaction strength of the organic film with the surface. It was found that a moderate temperature treatment (500 K) of the NP film led to a new equilibrium structure, which dramatically perturbed the herringbone reconstruction. Our data suggest that organic-metal interfaces studied at room temperature or lower do not necessarily reflect the true equilibrium structures of the organic films, which are important in understanding the associated properties of organic thin film electronic devices. Interpretation of the self-assembled NP structure on Au(111) is discussed in conjunction with STM tip induced imaging effects which appear prevalent on these complex organic/meta...