Tip-induced chemical manipulation of metal porphyrins at a liquid/solid interface

J Am Chem Soc. 2014 Dec 17;136(50):17418-21. doi: 10.1021/ja510930z. Epub 2014 Dec 5.

Abstract

Changing abruptly the potential between a scanning tunneling microscope tip and a graphite substrate induces "high-conductance" spots at the molecular level in a monolayer formed by a manganese chloride-porphyrin molecule. These events are attributed to the pulse-induced formation of μ-oxo-porphyrin dimers. The pulse voltage must pass a certain threshold for dimer formation, and pulse polarity determines the yield.