Issue being adressed: The study of on-surface chemical reactions has attracted recently an enormous interest demonstrating to be a versatile tool for the fabrication of atomically precise covalently bonded carbon nanomaterials that cannot be synthesized in conventional solution-based chemistry. Over the last decade, a plethora of on-surface reactions based on C−C coupling such as cyclodehydrogenation, or aryl-aryl coupling, have been successfully investigated on several single crystal metallic surfaces under a well-controlled environment such as ultra-high vacuum (UHV) with the help of advanced scanning probe and complementary surface analysis techniques, combined with theoretical calculations. Such techniques also serve as adequate tools to undertake a sequential study of reaction steps, contributing to the investigation of mechanistic insights on the synthetic pathway toward targeted products. However, despite of these extraordinary advances realized in the field of on-surface synthesis, a gap between ideal nanomaterials and the accessible synthetic pathways to reach them still persists.
Importancy for society: OssCaNa provides a multidisciplinary approach toward the understanding of innovative carbon-based nanomaterials as active materials in foreseen functional devices for real-world applications. carbon-based nanomaterials in the natural world have been around since the beginning of time. They are undoubtedly involved in comfort and facilitation of human life, being ubiquitous in our daily lives. However, the synthesis of well-defined carbon-based nanomaterials with unique structural, electronic and magnetic properties under conventional solution chemistry methods is often hampered by their low solubility and high reactivity. Such nanomaterials might enable completely new functionalities with prospects, as key components of high-level technologies, in a wide field such as organic electronics.
Overall objectives: the goal of the OssCaNa project presents two steps. First, it aims at the study of carbon-based nanomaterials combining a broad variety of surface science techniques such as low temperature scanning probe microscopy/spectroscopy STM/STS and non-contact atomic force microscopy (nc-AFM). Second, it focusses on the efficient transfer of the targeted nanomaterials fabricated and characterized on a metallic substrate in the previous step, to appropriate substrates for further electrical transport characterization and high-performance device fabrication:
• SO1: Design and synthesis of novel carbon-based nanomaterials obtained through on-surface chemical reactions on metallic substrates.
• SO2: Unravel the structural and electronic properties of the desired nanomaterials synthetized in SO1 via surface science techniques.
• SO3: Transfer of the desired nanomaterials fabricated and characterized on metallic substrates in SO1 and SO2, to technologically appropriate semiconducting or insulating substrates.
• SO4: Electrical transport characterization and high-performance device fabrication of the targeted carbon-based nanomaterials.
