J. Am. Chem. Soc.: Surface-Assisted Alkane Polymerization: Investigation on Structure-Reactivity Relationship

Title：

Surface-Assisted Alkane Polymerization: Investigation on Structure-Reactivity Relationship

Authors：

Kewei Sun¹,   Aixi Chen¹, Meizhuang liu², Haiming Zhang^1,*, Ruomeng Duan³, Penghui Ji¹, Ling Li¹, Qing   Li¹, Chen Li^3,4, Dingyong Zhong², Klaus   Müllen^4,5 and Lifeng Chi^1,*

Institutions：

¹Jiangsu Key Laboratory for Carbon Based Functional Materials & Devices, Institute of Functional Nano & Soft Materials(FUNSOM), Soochow University, Suzhou   215123, P. R. China

²School of Physics & State Key Laboratory of Optoelectronic Materials and Technologies, Sun Yat-sen University, 510275 Guangzhou, P. R.   China  

³School of Environment and Civil Engineering, Dongguan University of Technology, Dongguan 523808, China

⁴Max Planck Institute for Polymer Research, Ackermannweg 10, D-55128 Mainz, Germany

⁵Institute of Physical Chemistry, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Duesbergweg 10-14, D-55128 Mainz

Abstract：

Surface-assisted polymerization of alkanes is a remarkable reaction for which the surface-reconstruction of Au(110) is crucial. The surface of (1×2)-Au(110) precovered with molecules can be completely transformed into (1×3)-Au(110) by introducing branched methylidene groups on both sides of the aliphatic chain (18, 19-dimethylidene-hexatriacontane) or locally shifted into (1×3)-Au(110) under exposure to low energy electrons (beam energy from 3.5 eV to 33.6 eV, for alkane dotriacontane). Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) investigations demonstrate that alkane chains adsorbed on (1×3)-Au(110) are more reactive than on (1×2)-Au(110), presenting a solid experimental proof for structure-reactivity relationships. This difference can be ascribed to the existence of an extra row of gold atoms in the groove of (1×3)-Au(110), providing active sites of Au atoms with lower coordination number. The experimental results are further confirmed by density functional theory (DFT) simulations.

IF：

13.858

Link：

https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/jacs.7b09097