Prof. Dr. Michael Gottfried from the University of Marburg has received an ERC Synergy Grant from the European Research Council (ERC) together with Prof. Dr. Michael Mastalerz from the University of Heidelberg and Prof. Dr. Holger Bettinger from the University of Tübingen. With their project "Tackling the Cyclacene Challenge" (TACY), the three researchers are pursuing the goal of generating a special class of ring-shaped carbon compounds - the cyclacenes - for the first time. The European Research Council is funding the project with around 11 million euros. Of this, around 4.5 million euros is earmarked for the research work at Philipps-Universität Marburg.

 

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Scientists from the LOEWE research-initiative PriOSS (Principles of On-Surface Synthesis) and the University of Newcastle (UON) in Australia have jointly developed a new measurement method to visualize the chemical structure of single molecules. A low-temperature atomic force microscope (AFM) was used for the measurements, which scans the sample with an extremely sharp tip that is functionalized with a single CO molecule. The excitation of a torsional eigenmode of the tuning fork sensor (twisting along the longitudinal axis) results in a nearly lateral vibration of the CO tip with an amplitude of only a few picometers, which perfectly suited for performing lateral force microscopy (LFM) with single bond resolution.

 

Original Publication

Daniel Martin-Jimenez, Michael G. Ruppert, Alexander Ihle, Sebastian Ahles, Hermann A. Wegner, André Schirmeisen and Daniel Ebeling. "Chemical bond imaging using torsional and flexural higher eigenmodes of qPlus sensors." Nanoscale 14, 5329, 2022 (Cover Article). https://doi.org/10.1039/D2NR01062C 

 

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Light at the end of the tunnel: A "tunnel" plays a central role in the research work of chemist Prof. Dr. Peter R. Schreiner. The internationally renowned and multi-award-winning top researcher, who is considered one of the pioneers of organocatalysis, has discovered the mechanism of tunneling control of reactions with his team at the Institute of Organic Chemistry at Justus Liebig University Giessen (JLU) and demonstrated its prevalence. In addition to thermodynamic and kinetic control, he was thus able to scientifically establish a third driving force of chemical reactions: "Tunneling" is important both for understanding and designing chemical reactions. To continue and expand his groundbreaking research on "tunneling" as a driving force for chemical reactions, Prof. Schreiner receives an ERC Advanced Grant. The European Union will fund his project "Cold Organic Chemistry" (COLDOC) with 2.5 million euros over the next five years.

 

original article in german

 

 

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In a recent paper in Nature Chemistry we show how to build nanostructures using individual organic molecules one by one with an atomic force microscope. This opens the path to prototyping of new molecular structures, otherwise impossible to fabricate.

 

Original Publication

Q. Zhong, A. Ihle, S. Ahlers, H.A. Wegner, A. Schirmeisen, D. Ebeling. "Constructing covalent organic nanoarchitectures molecule by molecule via scanning probe manipulation" Nature Chemistry, 2021

 

 

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