Fast, Atomic-Scale Investigation of Assembly and Reaction at Surfaces

新技术的发展关键取决于以新的和令人兴奋的方式控制材料性能的能力。小型化和效率的现代趋势，以及（例如）对清洁能源和高效能源存储的新兴社会需求，揭示了对新材料的需求，这些新材料可以使下一代技术具有更高的性能。一个有希望的解决方案，这种需求的更小的设备是转移到一个“自下而上”的角度来看，分子积木组装成功能性纳米结构材料。这种方法的一个显著优点是，可以获得的最小特征尺寸主要取决于构建块的尺寸。推进这些自下而上的方法需要更好地理解的相互作用驱动的组织的分子组分，这福尔斯属于超分子化学领域，最近，“表面反应”。* 扫描隧道显微镜（STM）可以获取吸附在导电表面上的单个分子的图像，使其成为研究分子组织和反应的宝贵工具。结合STM与其他表面分析工具，NanoFemtoLab已经获得了分子相互作用和表面反应的基本见解，特别是最近合成的2D共轭聚合物，也称为“石墨烯的有机类似物”，具有破纪录的顺序和域大小。为了扩展这一前沿研究，我们建议通过组合多个构建块来定制这些有序的2D聚合物的电子特性。与此同时，为了将这项工作推向应用，我们正在研究将这些聚合物转移到半导体中，使其能够用于电子设备。* 该提案的动机是获得关键设备，使我们能够对2D聚合物的结构/性能关系进行系统研究。首先，为了实施这些时间敏感的项目，我们迫切需要更换一个15年前的STM的故障组件，这是我们研究基础设施的重要组成部分。除了这个重要的修复，我们试图升级这个系统，以执行“视频STM”（高达100赫兹），在加拿大是独一无二的，这将是能够研究快速过程的表面，如扩散，自组装和反应与STM的特殊空间分辨率。具体来说，我们建议调查的动态表面聚合的前体，中间体和产品在整个反应的成像。**

The development of new technologies depends critically on the ability to control materials properties in new and exciting ways. Modern trends towards miniaturization and efficiency, as well as (for example) emerging societal demands for clean energy and efficient energy storage, have revealed the need for new materials that can enable next-generation technologies with improved performance. A promising solution to this demand for smaller devices is to shift to a “bottom-up” perspective, where molecular building blocks are assembled into functional nanostructured materials. A significant advantage of this approach is that the smallest feature size that can be obtained depends mainly on the size of the building blocks. Advancing these bottom-up methods requires an improved understanding of the interactions driving the organization of the molecular components, which falls within the field of supramolecular chemistry and more recently, “on-surface reactions”. ***The scanning tunnelling microscope (STM) can acquire images of individual molecules adsorbed on a conducting surface, making it an invaluable tool to investigate molecular organization and reaction. Combining STM with other surface analysis tools, the NanoFemtoLab has obtained essential insights into molecular interactions and on-surface reactions, and in particular recently synthesized 2D conjugated polymers, also termed “organic analogues of graphene”, of record-breaking order and domain size. To extend this cutting-edge research, we propose to tailor the electronic properties of these well-ordered 2D polymers by combining multiple building blocks. In parallel, to move this work towards application, we are studying the transfer of these polymers to semiconductors to enable their incorporation in electronic devices. ***The motivation for this proposal is to acquire key equipment that will allow us to undertake a systematic investigation of structure/property relationships in 2D polymers. First of all, to carry out these time-sensitive projects, we urgently require a replacement for failed components of a fifteen year old STM that is a crucial part of our research infrastructure. In addition to this crucial repair, we seek to upgrade this system to perform “Video-STM” (up to 100 Hz), unique in Canada, that would be capable of studying rapid processes at surfaces such as diffusion, self-assembly and reactions with the exceptional spatial resolution of STM. Specifically, we propose to investigate the dynamics of surface-polymerization by imaging the precursors, intermediates and products throughout the reaction. **