Submitted on December 11, 2006
Accepted on February 8, 2007
Imaging of Single Organic Molecules in Motion
Masanori Koshino 1,
Takatsugu Tanaka 2,
Niclas Solin 3,
Kazutomo Suenaga 1*,
Hiroyuki Isobe 4*,
Eiichi Nakamura 5*
1 ERATO, Nakamura Functional Carbon Cluster Project, JST, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Research Centre for Advanced Carbon Materials, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Higashi, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 305-8565, Japan.
2 Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
3 Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
4 Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; PRESTO, JST, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
5 ERATO, Nakamura Functional Carbon Cluster Project, JST, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan; Department of Chemistry, The University of Tokyo, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo 113-0033, Japan.
* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
Kazutomo Suenaga , E-mail: suenaga-kazu{at}aist.go.jp
Hiroyuki Isobe , E-mail: hisobe{at}chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
Eiichi Nakamura , E-mail: nakamura{at}chem.s.u-tokyo.ac.jp
High-resolution transmission electron microscopy revealed nearly atomically precise images of stepping conformational change and translational motion of single hydrocarbon molecules confined in carbon nanotubes. One or two C12 or C22 alkyl chains were tethered to a carborane end group and then embedded in the nanotubes. Images of the hydrocarbon chains interacting with each other and with a graphitic surface provide information on three-dimensional structures and dynamic molecular interactions that cannot be obtained by other analytical methods.
