Scientists in France have combined homogeneous catalysis and atomic force microscopy to create intricate surface patterns.
Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) works by dragging a sharp tip across a material’s surface to map nanoscale surface topologies or measure surface interactions. Innovations in the design of AFM tips have allowed AFM to become a tool, not only for reading, but also for writing onto surfaces, analogous to creating tattoos on a molecular scale.
To date, AFM tips have only been able to use a narrow range of chemical transformations, including heterogeneous catalysis, to create patterns on a surface.
Now, Jean-Luc Parrain, Sylvain Clair, Olivier Chuzel and colleagues from Aix Marseille University and the National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), have attached a homogeneous catalyst to a commercially available AFM probe and used it to carry out…
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Read the original journal article in Chemical Science:
Grafting a homogeneous transition metal catalyst onto a silicon AFM probe: a promising strategy for chemically constructive nanolithography
Dmitry A. Valyaev, Sylvain Clair, Lionel Patrone, Mathieu Abel, Louis Porte, Olivier Chuzel and Jean-Luc Parrain
Chem. Sci., 2013, 4, 2815-2821
DOI: 10.1039/C3SC50979F
