The structures formed by propylene adsorption on Ni(111) at room temperature are determined by a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory. As a result of the interaction with the Ni(111) surface, propylene molecules are dehydrogenated and coupled into linear hydrocarbon chains. The length of the chains varies from 8 to 60A, with the most frequently observed length of 18A. At saturated coverage, some chains are closed in rings with a diameter of 6A. A C12H12 model is proposed for most often observed chains. We demonstrate that the possibility of combining initial propylene molecules into chains appears after dehydrogenation of the CH3 fragment.
Cite
@article{arxiv.1912.12261,
title = {Room temperature propylene dehydrogenation and linear atomic chain formation on Ni(111)},
author = {T. V. Pavlova and S. L. Kovalenko and K. N. Eltsov},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1912.12261},
year = {2020}
}