Tip-induced C-H activation and oligomerization of thienoanthracenes

Chem Commun (Camb). 2014 Aug 14;50(63):8791-3. doi: 10.1039/c4cc03719g. Epub 2014 Jun 26.

Abstract

The tip of a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) can be used to dehydrogenate freely-diffusing tetrathienoanthracene (TTA) molecules on Cu(111), trapping the molecules into metal-coordinated oligomeric structures. The process proceeds at bias voltages above ~3 V and produces organometallic structures identical to those resulting from the thermally-activated cross-coupling of a halogenated analogue. The process appears to be substrate dependent: no oligomerization was observed on Ag(111) or HOPG. This approach demonstrates the possibility of controlled synthesis and nanoscale patterning of 2D oligomer structures on selected surfaces.