Dresden 2026 – scientific programme
Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Updates | Downloads | Help
O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 58: Organic molecules on inorganic substrates: Adsorption and growth III
O 58.1: Talk
Wednesday, March 11, 2026, 10:30–10:45, TRE/PHYS
Probing weak chemical interactions of metal surface atoms with CO-terminated AFM tips identifies molecular adsorption sites — Jalmar Tschakert1, Qigang Zhong1, Alexander Sekels1, Pascal Henkel2, Jannis Jung2, K. Linus H. Pohl2, Hermann A. Wegner3, Doreen Mollenhauer4, André Schirmeisen1, and •Daniel Ebeling1 — 1Inst. of Applied Physics, Justus Liebig University Giessen — 2Inst. of Physical Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen — 3Inst. of Organic Chemistry, Justus Liebig University Giessen — 4Inst. for Technical and Environmental Chemistry, Friedrich Schiller University Jena
Understanding reaction mechanisms of adsorbed organic molecules is key to neat on-surface synthesis of functional nanomaterials. Low temperature atomic force microscopy has become an invaluable tool for studying on-surface reaction mechanisms as it allows to visualize the chemical structure of the reactants and products. However, directly accessing the molecule-surface interactions that are responsible for the pathway of on-surface reactions is difficult. Here, we measure chemical interactions between CO-terminated tips and coinage metal surface atoms in all spatial directions with picometer resolution. Identifying the small covalent bonding contributions in the background of the dispersion-dominated interaction enables revealing insights into the nature of chemical bond formation with metal surface atoms and a reliable determination of molecular adsorption sites. The latter can serve as a starting point and for a comparison with theoretical studies.
[1] Tschakert et al., Nature Communications 16, 7874 (2025)
Keywords: Low Temperature Atomic Force Microscopy; On-Surface Synthesis; On-Surface Reactions; Catalytic Interactions of Metal Surface Atoms