Single Ni Atoms Drive Carboxyl Deprotonation in Metal-Organic Chains.
basic_science · Level V
Where this comes from
- Record sourced from PubMed, PMID 41996284.
- Also identified by DOI 10.1021/acsnano.6c01444 and PMC identifier 13131048.
- Licence recorded as CC BY.
- The licence permits redistribution, so the abstract is shown in full and the full text is available from the publisher.
Abstract
Understanding how charge transfer and ligand activation processes govern metal-organic coordination at surfaces is crucial for controlling on-surface synthesis and the formation of low-dimensional architectures. Here, we show that Ni promotes the deprotonation of the carboxyl groups of terephthalic acid (TPA) on Ag(100), leading to the formation of linear metal-organic coordination chains. Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that these chains emerge from preassembled hydrogen-bonded TPA stripes. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy identifies stabilization of the Ni centers in the Ni(I) oxidation state through a single-electron charge transfer process, accompanied by the formation of deprotonated carboxylate species. Valence band spectroscopy reveals a coordination-induced electronic reorganization between Ni and TPA through the emergence of hybrid states, in agreement with complementary theoretical modeling. Together, these findings identify charge-transfer-driven deprotonation as the central mechanism governing the formation of linear metal-organic chains.