AVS 66th International Symposium & Exhibition
    Advanced Surface Engineering Division Friday Sessions
       Session SE+AS+SS-FrM

Paper SE+AS+SS-FrM4
Measuring Atomicscale Surface Friction of a Molecular Vehicle on Au(111)

Friday, October 25, 2019, 9:20 am, Room A215

Session: Tribology: From Nano to Macro-scale
Presenter: Sanjoy Sarkar, Ohio University
Authors: K.Z. Latt, Ohio University
S. Sarkar, Ohio University
K. Kottur, Ohio University
M. Raeis, Ohio University
A. Ngo, Argonne National Laboratory
R. Tumbleson, Ohio University
Y. Zhang, Ohio University
E. Masson, Ohio University
S.-W. Hla, Ohio University
Correspondent: Click to Email
Designing molecules with technomimetic properties has been actively pursued in the past decade. Among these, molecules specially designed for translational motion, dubbed as nanocars or molecular vehicles, are particularly appealing as they could ultimately be used to transport a molecular cargo or some specific chemical information from a start to an end point on a surface and on demand. Here, we have designed and assembled an electric nanovehicle using four molecular wheels and a molecular chassis as separate modules. An 'H' shape chasis is formed by two benzimidazolium groups linking the front and the rear axles to a terphenyl drive shaft. Final assembly of the nanovehicle is realized by attaching four pumpkin shaped cucurbituril molecular wheels. The chassis of the nanovehicle includes positive charges, which are used for the controlled lateral movement of the vehicle by scanning tunneling microscope tip induced electric field manipulation. The threshold voltage required to drive the nanovehicle is determined from the Vaussian-fit of the data. Moreover, we have determined lateral force to move the nanovehicle on a Au(111) surface at 5K and it is found to be in superlubricity regime.