On-surface synthesis of doubly-linked one-dimensional pentacene ladder polymers

On-surface synthesis has recently become an essential approach toward the formation of carbon-based nanostructures. Special emphasis is set on the synthesis of π-conjugated polymers taking into consideration their relevance and potential in organic electronics, optoelectronics and spintronics. Here,...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Chemical communications (Cambridge, England) England), 2020-12, Vol.56 (97), p.1539-15312
Main Authors: Biswas, Kalyan, Urgel, José I, Sánchez-Grande, Ana, Edalatmanesh, Shayan, Santos, José, Cirera, Borja, Mutombo, Pingo, Lauwaet, Koen, Miranda, Rodolfo, Jelínek, Pavel, Martín, Nazario, Écija, David
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Atomic force microscopy
Carbon
Chemical synthesis
Density functional theory
Functional groups
High vacuum
Low temperature
Microscopy
Nanomaterials
Optoelectronics
Polymers
Spintronics
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:On-surface synthesis has recently become an essential approach toward the formation of carbon-based nanostructures. Special emphasis is set on the synthesis of π-conjugated polymers taking into consideration their relevance and potential in organic electronics, optoelectronics and spintronics. Here, we report the on-surface synthesis of conjugated ladder polymers consisting of pentacene units doubly-linked via ethynylene-like bonds on the Au(111) surface under ultra-high vacuum conditions. To this aim, we have sublimed pentacene-like precursors equipped with four :CBr 2 functional groups to steer the desired reaction upon annealing on the surface. The atomically precise structure of the obtained polymers has been unambiguously characterized via low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and non-contact atomic force microscopy. In addition, scanning tunneling spectroscopy complemented with density-functional theory calculations reveal the narrow bandgap of the polymer. Our results provide potential for the synthesis of π-conjugated polymers with prospects in functional carbon-based nanomaterials that exploit multiple connections between molecular backbones. On-surface investigations of pentacene molecules functionalized with four dibromomethylene groups reveal, after an annealing step, the formation of π-conjugated ladder polymers doubly-linked by ethynylene bridges on a Au(111) surface.
ISSN:1359-7345
1364-548X
DOI:10.1039/d0cc06865a