Journal
SCIENCE
Volume 366, Issue 6462, Pages 235-+Publisher
AMER ASSOC ADVANCEMENT SCIENCE
DOI: 10.1126/science.aay3444
Keywords
-
Categories
Funding
- Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [CRC1277]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Surface molecules can transition from physisorption through weak van der Waals forces to a strongly bound chemisorption state by overcoming an energy barrier. We show that a carbon monoxide (CO) molecule adsorbed to the tip of an atomic force microscope enables a controlled observation of bond formation, including its potential transition from physisorption to chemisorption. During imaging of copper (Cu) and iron (Fe) adatoms on a Cu(111) surface, the CO was not chemically inert but transited through a physisorbed local energy minimum into a chemisorbed global minimum, and an energy barrier was seen for the Fe adatom. Density functional theory reveals that the transition occurs through a hybridization of the electronic states of the CO molecule mainly with s-, p(z)-, and d(z)(2)-type states of the Fe and Cu adatoms, leading to chemical bonding.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available