PAPER: Revealing the structural detail of individual polymers using a combination of electrospray deposition and UHV-STM
Chem. Commun. 2017, January 17
Jethwa, S. J., Madsen, M., Knudsen, J. B., Lammich, L., Gothelf, K. V., Linderoth, T. R.
Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Physics and Astronomy, Aarhus University, DK-8000 Aarhus C, Denmark.
Center for DNA Nanotechnology (CDNA) at the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) and Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, DK-8000, Aarhus C, Denmark.
Abstract
A phenylene vinylene polymer derivative is deposited onto a Au(111) surface under Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV) conditions using electrospray ionisation deposition and characterised using Scanning Tunnelling Microscopy (STM). High resolution STM images reveal the polymer structure on the monomeric scale, allowing the identification of regioisomerism, the intricate isomerisations of the polymer side-chains, as well as the larger-scale topologies of the polymer strands.