On-Surface Synthesis with Atomic Hydrogen.

Zuzak, Rafal; Jančařík, Andrej; Gourdon, Andre; Szymonski, Marek; Godlewski, Szymon · ACS Nano · 2020

basic_science · Level V

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Abstract

Surface-assisted synthesis has become a powerful approach for generation of molecular nanostructures, which could not be obtained <i>via</i> traditional solution chemistry. Nowadays there is an intensive search for reactions that could proceed on flat surfaces in order to boost the versatility and applicability of synthesized nano-objects. Here we propose application of atomic hydrogen combined with on-surface synthesis in order to tune the reaction pathways. We demonstrate that atomic hydrogen could be widely applied: (1) as a cleaning tool, which allows removal of halogen residues from the surface after Ullmann couplings/polymerization, (2) by reaction with surface organometallics to provide stable hydrogenated species, and (3) as a reagent for debromination or desulfurization of adsorbed species.