One-way rotation of a chemically anchored single molecule-rotor

Eisenhut F, Kuehne T, Monsalve J, Srivastava S, Ryndyk DA, Cuniberti G, Aiboudi O, Lissel F, Zobac V, Robles R, Lorente N, Joachim C, Moresco F (2021)

Publication Type: Journal article

Publication year: 2021

Journal

Nanoscale Royal Society of Chemistry

Book Volume: 13

Pages Range: 16077-16083

Journal Issue: 38

DOI: 10.1039/d1nr04583k

Abstract

We present the chemical anchoring of a DMBI-P molecule-rotor to the Au(111) surface after a dissociation reaction. At the temperature of 5 K, the anchored rotor shows a sequential unidirectional rotational motion through six defined stations induced by tunneling electrons. A typical voltage pulse of 400 mV applied on a specific location of the molecule causes a unidirectional rotation of 60° with a probability higher than 95%. When the temperature of the substrate increases above 20 K, the anchoring is maintained and the rotation stops being unidirectional and randomly explores the same six stations. Density functional theory simulations confirm the anchoring reaction. Experimentally, the rotation shows a clear threshold at the onset of the C-H stretch manifold, showing that the molecule is first vibrationally excited and later it decays into the rotational degrees of freedom.

Involved external institutions

Technische Universität Dresden DE Germany (DE) National Center for Scientific Research / Centre national de la recherche scientifique (CNRS) FR France (FR) Leibniz-Institut für Polymerforschung Dresden e. V. DE Germany (DE) University of Basque Country / Universidad del Pais Vasco (UPV) / Euskal Herriko Unibersitatea (EHU) ES Spain (ES)

How to cite

APA:

Eisenhut, F., Kuehne, T., Monsalve, J., Srivastava, S., Ryndyk, D.A., Cuniberti, G.,... Moresco, F. (2021). One-way rotation of a chemically anchored single molecule-rotor. Nanoscale, 13(38), 16077-16083. https://doi.org/10.1039/d1nr04583k

MLA:

Eisenhut, Frank, et al. "One-way rotation of a chemically anchored single molecule-rotor." Nanoscale 13.38 (2021): 16077-16083.

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