The additive-free tetrazine/enol ether click reaction was performed in ultra-high vacuum (UHV) with an enol ether group covalently linked to a silicon surface: Dimethyl 1,2,4,5-tetrazine-3,6-dicarboxylate molecules were coupled to the enol ether group of a functionalized cyclooctyne which was adsorbed on the silicon (001) surface via the strained triple bond of cyclooctyne. The reaction was observed at a substrate temperature of 380 K by means of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). A moderate energy barrier was deduced for this click reaction in vacuum by means of density functional theory based calculations, in good agreement with the experimental results. This UHV-compatible click reaction thus opens a new, flexible route for synthesizing covalently bound organic architectures.
Keywords: X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy; click chemistry; density functional calculations; silicon; surface chemistry.
© 2021 The Authors. Published by Wiley-VCH GmbH.