Stop-Frame Filming and Discovery of Reactions at the Single-Molecule Level by Transmission Electron Microscopy.

ABSTRACT: We report an approach, named chemTEM, to follow chemical transformations at the single-molecule level with the electron beam of a transmission electron microscope (TEM) applied as both a tunable source of energy and a sub-angstrom imaging probe. Deposited on graphene, disk-shaped perchlorocoronene molecules are precluded from intermolecular interactions. This allows monomolecular transformations to be studied at the single-molecule level in real time and reveals chlorine elimination and reactive aryne formation as a key initial stage of multistep reactions initiated by the 80 keV e-beam. Under the same conditions, perchlorocoronene confined within a nanotube cavity, where the molecules are situated in very close proximity to each other, enables imaging of intermolecular reactions, starting

SUBMITTER: Chamberlain TW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5371926 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature