Single molecular rotor is an important component for constructing bot-tom-up molecular mechanical machines and a window for shedding light on complex physical and chemical questions about motions of organic molecules on surfaces. Stability of each component in such a molecular construction site is a crucial prerequisite. To realize a stable stepwise rotation of a molecule by a low temperature scanning tunneling microscope (LT-STM), atomic scale axles is particularly important. An ideal atomic scale axle is expected to balance between anchoring and mobility of rotating a single molecule on a metal surface under external excitations. In this Chapter, several chemical anchoring strategies on how to pin a molecular rotor are tested and discussed. Tip-induced manipulation and motion analysis are used as tools to investigate the properties and functionality of the proposed strategies.
@article{arxiv.2204.01416,
title = {Anchoring molecular rotors by on-surface synthesis},
author = {Kwan Ho Au Yeung and Tim Kühne and Frank Eisenhut and Francesca Moresco},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2204.01416},
year = {2022}
}