title: Oscillations in the stability of consecutive chemical bonds revealed by ion-induced desorption.
abstract: While it is a common concept in chemistry that strengthening of one bond results in weakening of the adjacent ones, no results have been published on if and how this effect protrudes further into the molecular backbone. By binding molecules to a surface in the form of a self-assembled monolayer, the strength of a primary bond can be selectively altered. Herein, we report that by using secondary-ion mass spectrometry, we are able to detect for the first time positional oscillations in the stability of consecutive bonds along the adsorbed molecule, with the amplitudes diminishing with increasing distance from the molecule-metal interface. To explain these observations, we have performed molecular dynamics simulations and DFT calculations. These show that the oscillation effects in chemical-bond stability have a very general nature and break the translational symmetry in molecules.
authors.affiliation: Smoluchowski Institute of Physics, Jagiellonian University, Reymonta 4, 30059 Kraków (Poland).
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ossowski
authors.forename: Jakub
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Rysz
authors.forename: Mariusz
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krawiec
authors.forename: Dawid
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Maciazek
authors.forename: Zbigniew
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Postawa
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terfort
authors.forename: Piotr
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Cyganik
keywords: chemical bonding; density functional calculations; mass spectrometry; molecular dynamics; self-assembled monolayers