Submitted on September 19, 2006
Accepted on January 5, 2007
A Molecule Carrier
K. L. Wong 1,
G. Pawin 1,
K.-Y. Kwon 1,
X. Lin 1,
T. Jiao 1,
U. Solanki 1,
R. H. J. Fawcett 1,
L. Bartels 1*,
S. Stolbov 2,
T. S. Rahman 2
1 Pierce Hall, University of California, Riverside, CA 92521, USA.
2 Department of Physics, University of Central Florida, Orlando, FL 32816, USA.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
L. Bartels , E-mail: ludwig.bartels{at}ucr.edu
Anthraquinone is found to diffuse along a straight line across a flat, highly-symmetric Cu(111) surface. It can also attach reversibly up to two CO2 molecules as 'cargo' and act as a 'molecule carrier', thereby transforming the diffusive behavior of the CO2 molecules from isotropic to linear. Density functional theory calculations indicate a substrate-mediated attraction of
0.12 electron volt (eV). Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals individual steps of the molecular complex on its diffusion pathway and an increase in the diffusion barrier by
0.03 and
0.02 eV upon attachment of the first and the second CO2 molecule, respectively.