Summary

Potential functionalities of self-assembled nanostructures or and nanosized objects include magnetism, novel heterogeneous catalysts, selective host-guest interactions and new concepts of molecular motion and conformational changes, i.e. the transformation of energy into work at a molecular scale. In particular, the magnetic properties are studied by both integral and local methods. For the integral characterization we apply spectroscopic techniques based on synchrotron radiation by means of X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) and X-ray magnetic circular dichroism (XMCD). On a local scale scanning tunneling spectroscopy (STS) and inelastic tunneling spectroscopy (IETS) at cryogenic temperatures are employed to determine the electronic and magnetic properties of the metal centers and clusters embedded in the supramolecular networks.

Topics

Host-Guest Chemistry

Magnetic Function of Metal-Coordination Complexes at Surfaces

Single Molecule Chemistry

Team Members

Key Publications

S. Stepanow, N. Lin, J.V. Barth, and K. Kern
Non-covalent binding of fullerenes and biomolecules at surface-supported metallosupramolecular receptors
Chem. Commun. 2153 (2006) (PDF)

S. Stepanow, M. Lingenfelder, A. Dmitriev, H. Spillmann, E. Delvigne, N. Lin, X. Deng, C. Cai, J.V. Barth, and K. Kern,
Steering molecular organization and host-guest interactions using two-dimensional nanoporous coordination systems,
Nature Materials 3, 229 (2004) (PDF)