Brown, T. orcid.org/0000-0002-6696-625X, Blowey, P.J. orcid.org/0000-0003-0357-5355 and Sweetman, A. orcid.org/0000-0002-7716-9045 (2024) Precise determination of molecular adsorption geometries by room temperature non-contact atomic force microscopy. Communications Chemistry, 7 (1). 8. ISSN 2399-3669
Abstract
High resolution force measurements of molecules on surfaces, in non-contact atomic force microscopy, are often only performed at cryogenic temperatures, due to needing a highly stable system, and a passivated probe tip (typically via CO-functionalisation). Here we show a reliable protocol for acquiring three-dimensional force map data over both single organic molecules and assembled islands of molecules, at room temperature. Isolated cobalt phthalocyanine and islands of C60 are characterised with submolecular resolution, on a passivated silicon substrate (B:Si(111)- ). Geometries of cobalt phthalocyanine are determined to a ~ 10 pm accuracy. For the C60, the protocol is sufficiently robust that areas spanning 10 nm × 10 nm are mapped, despite the difficulties of room temperature operation. These results provide a proof-of-concept for gathering high-resolution three-dimensional force maps of networks of complex, non-planar molecules on surfaces, in conditions more analogous to real-world application.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. |
Keywords: | Atomic force microscopy; Scanning probe microscopy; Surface assembly |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Engineering & Physical Sciences (Leeds) > School of Physics and Astronomy (Leeds) > Molecular & Nanoscale Physics |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 09 Jan 2024 16:14 |
Last Modified: | 22 Jan 2025 10:04 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s42004-023-01093-z |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | Springer Science and Business Media LLC |
Identification Number: | 10.1038/s42004-023-01093-z |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:207418 |