Within the relatively young research field of the on-surface Chemistry the catalytic properties of surfaces are used to synthesize new materials that are not accessible with other techniques; in particular, by wet chemistry conventional routes. Following this bottom-up strategy, surfaces can be used as suitable platforms for enabling the emergence of novel low-dimensional molecular networks. In synergistic contribution,para-aminophenol (p-AP) molecules are taken as precursors (building block) for the surface reaction. Within a multi-technique approach that includes STM, nc-AFM, STS, XPS, and DFT calculations, we have found that these molecules, when adsorbed on Pt(111) and upon a thermal stimulus, covalently react each other forming oligomers coupled in an unprecedented metaconfiguration.
STM and nc-AFM microscopies showed that starting from individual molecules and by annealing the surface, results in the formation of oligomer chains , while monitoring the thermal behavior of the p-AP/Pt(111) system by means of high-resolution XPS at the SuperESCA beamline of Elettra shed light on the chemical nature of the species present on the crystal surface in the steps which lead to the synthesis of meta-polyaniline oligomers.
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