%0 Journal Article
%A Sánchez Grande, Ana
%A De la Torre, Bruno
%A Santos, José
%A Cirera, Borja
%A Lauwaet, Koen
%A Chutora, Taras
%A Edalatmanesh, Shayan
%A Rosen, Johanna
%A Zboril, Radek
%A Miranda, Rodolfo
%A Björk, Jonas
%A Jelínek, Pavel
%A Martín, Nazario
%A Ecija, David
%T On-Surface Synthesis of Ethynylene-Bridged Anthracene Polymers
%D 2019
%@ 1433-7851
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/13868
%X Engineering low-band-gap p-conjugated polymers is a growing area in basic and applied research. The main synthetic challenge lies in the solubility of the starting materials, which precludes advancements in the field. Here, we report an on-surface synthesis protocol to overcome such difficulties and produce poly(p-anthracene ethynylene) molecular wires on Au(111). To this aim, a quinoid anthracene precursor with =CBr2 moieties is deposited and annealed to 400 K, resulting in anthracene-based polymers. High-resolution nc-AFM measurements confirm the nature of the ethynylene-bridge bond between the anthracene moieties. Theoretical simulations illustrate the mechanism of the chemical reaction, highlighting three major steps: dehalogenation, diffusion of surface-stabilized carbenes, and homocoupling, which enables the formation of an ethynylene bridge. Our results introduce a novel chemical protocol to design p-conjugated polymers based on oligoacene precursors and pave new avenues for advancing the emerging field of on-surface synthesis.
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