Work

Reversible Photomechanical Switching of Individual Engineered Molecules at a Metallic Surface

Year: 2007

Type: article

Abstract: We have observed reversible light-induced mechanical switching for individual organic molecules bound to a metal surface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) was used to image the features of individual azobenzene molecules on Au(111) before and after reversibly cycling their mechanical structure between trans and cis states using light. Azobenzene molecules were engineered to increase their surface photomechanical activity by attaching varying numbers of tert-butyl (TB) ligands ("legs") to the azobenzene phenyl rings. STM images show that increasing the number of TB legs "lifts" the azobenzene molecules from the substrate, thereby increasing molecular photomechanical activity by decreasing molecule-surface coupling.

Source: Physical Review Letters

DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.99.038301

Authors: Matthew J. Comstock, Niv Levy, Armen Kirakosian, Jongweon Cho, Frank Lauterwasser, Jessica H. Harvey, David A. Strubbe, Jean M. J. Fréchet, Dirk Trauner, Steven G. Louie, Michael F. Crommie

Institutions: Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley

Language: English

Topic: Surface Chemistry and Catalysis

Subfield: Biomedical Engineering

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: U.S. Department of Energy, National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center, Office of Science, Basic Energy Sciences, Division of Materials Sciences and Engineering

OpenAlex ID: W1987347836

FWCI: 22.69

Cites: 21

Cited by: 385

Related to: 10