title: Ballbot-type motion of N-heterocyclic carbenes on gold surfaces.
abstract: Recently, N-heterocyclic carbenes (NHCs) were introduced as alternative anchors for surface modifications and so offered many attractive features, which might render them superior to thiol-based systems. However, little effort has been made to investigate the self-organization process of NHCs on surfaces, an important aspect for the formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), which requires molecular mobility. Based on investigations with scanning tunnelling microscopy and first-principles calculations, we provide an understanding of the microscopic mechanism behind the high mobility observed for NHCs. These NHCs extract a gold atom from the surface, which leads to the formation of an NHC-gold adatom complex that displays a high surface mobility by a ballbot-type motion. Together with their high desorption barrier this enables the formation of ordered and strongly bound SAMs. In addition, this mechanism allows a complementary surface-assisted synthesis of dimeric and hitherto unknown trimeric NHC gold complexes on the surface.
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Institute of Physics &University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 603, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Gaoqiang
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-7821-9078
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 40, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6617-3594
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Rühling
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Saeed
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Amirjalayer
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Marek
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Knor
authors.affiliation: Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 40, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Johannes Bruno
authors.initials: JB
authors.lastname: Ernst
authors.affiliation: Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 40, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Richter
authors.affiliation: Institute of Physics &University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Chinese Academy of Sciences, PO Box 603, Beijing 100190, China.
authors.forename: Hong-Jun
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timmer
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Hong-Ying
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-6831-9112
authors.initials: HY
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Institut für Festkörpertheorie, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Nikos L
authors.initials: NL
authors.lastname: Doltsinis
authors.affiliation: Organisch-Chemisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Corrensstrasse 40, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Frank
authors.identifier: 0000-0002-0648-956X
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Glorius
authors.affiliation: Physikalisches Institut, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Nanotechnology, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany.|Center for Multiscale Theory and Computation, Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster, Wilhelm-Klemm-Straße 10, 48149 Münster, Germany.
authors.forename: Harald
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fuchs