Department of Physical Chemistry, Institute of Chemistry, University of Graz, Heinrichstrasse 28, 8010 Graz, Austria.
Departments of Chemistry and Materials Science and NanoEngineering and Smalley-Curl Institute and NanoCarbon Center, Rice University, Houston, Texas 77005, United States.
J Phys Chem Lett. 2023 Mar 16;14(10):2487-2492. doi: 10.1021/acs.jpclett.2c03472. Epub 2023 Mar 3.
Understanding the directed motion of a single molecule on surfaces is not only important in the well-established field of heterogeneous catalysis but also for the design of artificial nanoarchitectures and molecular machines. Here, we report how the tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can be used to control the translation direction of a single polar molecule. Through the interaction of the molecular dipole with the electric field of the STM junction, it was found that both translations and rotations of the molecule occur. By considering the location of the tip with respect to the axis of the dipole moment, we can deduce the order in which rotation and translation take place. While the molecule-tip interaction dominates, computational results suggest that the translation is influenced by the surface direction along which the motion takes place.
理解表面上单分子的定向运动不仅在成熟的多相催化领域很重要，而且对于人工纳米结构和分子机器的设计也很重要。在这里，我们报告了扫描隧道显微镜（STM）的尖端如何用于控制单个极性分子的平移方向。通过分子偶极子与 STM 结电场的相互作用，发现分子既发生平移又发生旋转。通过考虑尖端相对于偶极矩轴的位置，可以推断出旋转和平移发生的顺序。虽然分子-尖端相互作用占主导地位，但计算结果表明，平移受到分子运动方向的表面方向的影响。
