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Optimized Setup and Protocol for Magnetic Domain Imaging with In Situ Hysteresis Measurement
Published on: November 7, 2017
Imaging an unsupported metal-metal bond in dirhenium molecules at the atomic scale
Kecheng Cao1, Stephen T Skowron2, Johannes Biskupek1
1Central Facility for Materials Science Electron Microscopy, Ulm University, Albert-Einstein-Allee 11, Ulm 89081, Germany.
Abstract:
Metallic bonds remain one of the most important and least understood of the chemical bonds. In this study, we generated Re2 molecules in which the Re-Re core is unsupported by ligands. Real-time imaging of the atomic-scale dynamics of Re2 adsorbed on a graphitic lattice allows direct measurement of Re-Re bond lengths for individual molecules that changes in discrete steps correlating with bond order from one to four. Direct imaging of the Re-Re bond breaking process reveals a new bonding state with the bond order less than one and a high-amplitude vibrational stretch, preceding the bond dissociation. The methodology, based on aberration-corrected transmission electron microscopy imaging, is shown to be a powerful analytical tool for the investigation of dynamics of metallic bonding at the atomic level.
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