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Visualizing the orientational dependence of an intermolecular potential

Jarvis, Samuel P.; Rashid, Mohammad A.; Sweetman, Adam; Rashid, Mohammad Abdur; Jarvis, Samuel Paul; Dunn, Janette L.; Rahe, Philipp; Moriarty, Philip

Authors

Samuel P. Jarvis

Mohammad A. Rashid

Adam Sweetman

Mohammad Abdur Rashid

Samuel Paul Jarvis

Janette L. Dunn

Philipp Rahe



Abstract

Scanning probe microscopy can now be used to map the properties of single molecules with intramolecular precision by functionalization of the apex of the scanning probe tip with a single atom or molecule. Here we report on the mapping of the three-dimensional potential between fullerene (C₆₀) molecules in different relative orientations, with sub-Angstrom resolution, using dynamic force microscopy (DFM). We introduce a visualization method which is capable of directly imaging the variation in equilibrium binding energy of different molecular orientations. We model the interaction using both a simple approach based around analytical Lennard–Jones potentials, and with dispersion-force-corrected density functional theory (DFT), and show that the positional variation in the binding energy between the molecules is dominated by the onset of repulsive interactions. Our modelling suggests that variations in the dispersion interaction are masked by repulsive interactions even at displacements significantly larger than the equilibrium intermolecular separation.

Citation

Jarvis, S. P., Rashid, M. A., Sweetman, A., Rashid, M. A., Jarvis, S. P., Dunn, J. L., …Moriarty, P. (2016). Visualizing the orientational dependence of an intermolecular potential. Nature Communications, 7, Article 10621. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10621

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Jan 5, 2016
Online Publication Date Feb 16, 2016
Publication Date 2016-12
Deposit Date Oct 4, 2016
Publicly Available Date Mar 28, 2024
Journal Nature Communications
Electronic ISSN 2041-1723
Publisher Nature Publishing Group
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 7
Article Number 10621
DOI https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms10621
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/776219
Publisher URL http://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms10621
Related Public URLs https://rdmc.nottingham.ac.uk/handle/internal/74

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