Tuning the Electronic and Dynamical Properties of a Molecule by Atom Trapping Chemistry

van Dong Pham (1) , Vincent Repain (1) , Cyril Chacon (1) , Amandine Bellec (1) , Yann Girard (1) , Sylvie Rousset (1) , Enrique Abad (2) , Yannick J Dappe (3) , Alexander Smogunov (3) , Jérôme Lagoute (1)

1 MPQ (UMR_7162) - Laboratoire Matériaux et Phénomènes Quantiques
2 DFTMC - Departamento de Física Teórica de la Materia Condensada [Madrid]
3 GMT - Groupe Modélisation et Théorie

The ability to trap adatoms with an organic molecule on a surface has been used to obtain a range of molecular functionalities controlled by the choice of the molecular trapping site and local deprotonation. The tetraphenylporphyrin molecule used in this study contains three types of trapping sites: two carbon rings (phenyl and pyrrole) and the center of a macrocycle. Catching a gold adatom on the carbon rings leads to an electronic doping of the molecule, whereas trapping the adatom at the macrocycle center with single deprotonation leads to a molecular rotor and a second deprotonation leads to a molecular jumper. We call " atom trapping chemistry " the control of the structure, electronic, and dynamical properties of a molecule achieved by trapping metallic atoms with a molecule on a surface. In addition to the examples previously described, we show that more complex structures can be envisaged.

Keywords: density functional theory; scanning tunneling microscopy; single-molecule manipulation; molecular rotor

Domains: Physics [physics]

van Dong Pham, Vincent Repain, Cyril Chacon, Amandine Bellec, Yann Girard, et al.. Tuning the Electronic and Dynamical Properties of a Molecule by Atom Trapping Chemistry. ACS Nano, 2017, 11, pp.10742 - 10749. ⟨10.1021/acsnano.7b05235⟩. ⟨cea-01687079⟩