Related Experiment Video
Updated: Nov 17, 2025

Observation and Analysis of Blinking Surface-enhanced Raman Scattering
Published on: January 11, 2018
Raman Detection of Bond Breaking and Making of a Chemisorbed Up-Standing Single Molecule at Single-Bond Level
Rui-Pu Wang1, Ben Yang1, Qiang Fu2
1Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale and Synergetic Innovation Center of Quantum Information and Quantum Physics, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui 230026, China.
Abstract:
Probing bond breaking and making as well as related structural changes at the single-molecule level is of paramount importance for understanding the mechanism of chemical reactions. In this work, we report in situ tracking of bond breaking and making of an up-standing melamine molecule chemisorbed on Cu(100) by subnanometer resolved tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). We demonstrate a vertical detection depth of about 4 Å with spectral sensitivity at the single chemical-bond level, which allows us not only to justify the up-standing configuration involving a dehydrogenation process at the bottom upon chemisorption, but also to specify the breaking of top N-H bonds and the transformation to its tautomer during photon-induced hydrogen transfer reactions. Our results indicate the chemical and structural sensitivity of TERS for single-molecule recognition beyond flat-lying planar molecules, providing new opportunities for probing the microscopic mechanism of molecular adsorption and surface reactions at the chemical-bond level.
Related Concept Videos
Raman Spectroscopy: Overview
However, a small fraction of the scattered light exhibits a frequency shift due to the exchange of energy between the incident photons and...
¹H NMR: Complex Splitting
Splitting diagrams or splitting tree diagrams are routinely used to depict such complex couplings. While drawing splitting diagrams, the splitting with the larger coupling constant is usually applied...
¹H NMR of Conformationally Flexible Molecules: Temporal Resolution
Radical Formation: Homolysis
IR Spectroscopy: Molecular Vibration Overview
Stretching vibrations are vibrational motions that occur along the bond line, changing the bond length or distance between two bonded atoms. They are further distinguished as symmetric or asymmetric. In symmetric stretching, the...
Molecular Spectroscopy: Absorption and Emission

