N1005 IBM Research: CiQUS

<br /><div class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Once again, IBM scientists are opening the eyes of the world to objects that exist only at the atomic scale.</span></i><br /><i><span style="font-family: "helvneue light for ibm" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span></i><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/OOkbt16M3Mg" width="560"></iframe></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">In a new paper <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2438">appearing today</a> in the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2438">peer-reviewed journal </a><i><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2438">Nature Chemistry</a>, </i>IBM researchers, in collaboration with CiQUS at the University of Santiago de Compostela</span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, have observed a fascinating molecular rearrangement reaction known as a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bergman_cyclization">Bergman cyclisation</a></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>– </span>which was</span><span style="font-size: 13pt;"> first described in 1972 by American chemist Robert George Bergman. The paper will be featured on the cover of the March issue.</span></span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13pt;"></span><br /></span><br /><a name="more"></a><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13pt;"></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.usc.es/ciqus/en/general-information/staff/diego-pena-gil">Professor Diego Peña</a>, a chemist at the University of Santiago de Compostela and co-author of the paper, explains the significance: “At first the rearrangement was simply considered a curiosity, but in the late 1980s it was discovered that the mechanism of action for some anticancer drugs, which are based on this reaction. This naturally attracted a lot of attention from the scientific community, and now it's a very popular reaction in organic chemistry.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The secret to imaging the Bergman reaction is a technique known as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscopy">atomic force microscopy</a> (AFM), which makes use of a nanosized-sharp tip to measure tiny forces between the tip and the sample.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The AFM was first <a href="http://www.qudev.ethz.ch/phys4/studentspresentations/afm/Atomic%20force%20microscope.pdf">demonstrated</a>in 1986 by IBM scientists Gerd Binnig, Christoph Gerber, and Calvin Quate of Stanford University. Binnig, who is solely listed on the <span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;"><a href="https://www.google.com/patents/US4724318">first patent</a>,</span></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">was quoted in <a href="http://spectrum.ieee.org/geek-life/profiles/a-beautiful-noise"><i>IEEE Spectrum Magazine</i> in 2004</a> saying that the idea for the AFM came to him subconsciously while he was lying on the couch. Not long afterwards Binnig and his colleague, the late <a href="http://www.research.ibm.com/articles/heinrich-rohrer.shtml">Heinrich Rohrer</a>, received the Nobel Prize for the <a href="http://www-03.ibm.com/ibm/history/ibm100/us/en/icons/microscope/">scanning tunneling microscope</a> (STM), the predecessor of the AFM.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMbH8Tkwdmr2A0Jm5Nnfw2LA2CD53zooo1y3Y_lhJYxy-Y3RUR929vK_LmSIyekcEEsEowhwbc-_wmyCHoJwm1SOHLoLI7NQs322n6siDK95WQsVF2uLtvrLFV_6kefIUrqY-kq8nx_o/s1600/berg.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiVMbH8Tkwdmr2A0Jm5Nnfw2LA2CD53zooo1y3Y_lhJYxy-Y3RUR929vK_LmSIyekcEEsEowhwbc-_wmyCHoJwm1SOHLoLI7NQs322n6siDK95WQsVF2uLtvrLFV_6kefIUrqY-kq8nx_o/s400/berg.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bergman cyclisation is a fascinating rearrangement reaction with<br />implications beyond organic chemistry. It has now been shown that a reversible<br />Bergman cyclisation action in a single molecule sitting on an ultra thin NaCl film<br />can be directly imaged using atomic force microscopy.</td></tr></tbody></table><b><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Studying Individual Bonds With Advanced Tip</span></b><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">More recently, IBM scientists in Zurich have modified the tip of their AFM with a single carbon monoxide molecule. This diatomic molecule, which is less than one nanometer long, produces images so clear that scientists are able to study the sample’s chemical nature based on the minute differences between individual bonds.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The IBM team, led by <a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-GME">Gerhard Meyer</a> and <a href="http://researcher.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-LGR">Leo Gross</a>, first published their technique in 2009 in the journal <a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/325/5944/1110.full%29"><i><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">Science</span></i></a><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">by producing a stunning image of the flat molecule pentacene. Over the next several years, they worked on refining the technique and pushing its limits beyond what they ever expected.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Gross comments, “One main differentiator of our technique, with respect to other established techniques, is that we measure single<b> </b>molecules. Another advantage is that we can use the tip to initiate chemical reactions of individual molecules and we can follow the reactions and study their products at the atomic scale.”</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">A few years later the team produced a string of breakthroughs in 2012, including the ability to <a href="http://www.nature.com/nnano/journal/v7/n4/full/nnano.2012.20.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">measure the electric field produced by a single molecule</span></a><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">, </span><span lang="DE" style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://science.sciencemag.org/content/337/6100/1326.full"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">a demonstration of</span><span lang="FR" style="mso-ansi-language: FR;"> bond-order discrimination</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"> </span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">and in 2013, </span><span lang="DE" style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://journals.aps.org/prl/abstract/10.1103/PhysRevLett.111.106103"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">the exact measurement of adsorption geometries</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPddO0tYfaGNPjZNxARD2XMLwFoo3jEqPwklNeXy0odxMjwyXn5TUG1bwF-RO_oXVLTbKQabJUyTaPPleJdjFWESBJHqpkEbe8EjNjmL-6eDtrZCvEJj0eY_RNEWn5F-iKy4pa7adouhE/s1600/ezgif.com-video-to-gif-2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPddO0tYfaGNPjZNxARD2XMLwFoo3jEqPwklNeXy0odxMjwyXn5TUG1bwF-RO_oXVLTbKQabJUyTaPPleJdjFWESBJHqpkEbe8EjNjmL-6eDtrZCvEJj0eY_RNEWn5F-iKy4pa7adouhE/s320/ezgif.com-video-to-gif-2.gif" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Bergman cyclisation Diyne from model to image. </td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">During this period of notable publications, the team began receiving requests from scientists around the world, including a professor at Aberdeen University, who proposed in 2009 to use their technique to identify a species of bacterium collected from the deepest place on Earth. This pressure-tolerant bacterium — called Dermacoccus abyssi — produced a chemical compound which could not be recognised. Using their technique, IBM scientists </span><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">successfully <a href="http://www.nature.com/nchem/journal/v2/n10/abs/nchem.765.html"><span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US;">imaged and identified it as cephalandole A</span></a></span><span style="font-size: 13pt; line-height: 107%;">, a molecule previously isolated from a Taiwanese orchid.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">With their latest work, the team has found another application for their technique</span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">: the ability to induce chemical reactions, like the Bergman cyclisation.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">“Working at low temperatures and on special, inert surfaces like the two-atom-thick layers of salt that we used in our paper, we are able to stabilize reactive intermediates that under normal conditions are too short-lived to be studied in detail. Not only can we form highly reactive intermediates using the tip to create and cleave bonds within the molecule, we can even switch between different reaction intermediates.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Remarkably, we can change almost all important properties of these molecules by switching them, affecting their reactivity, structure and their optical, electronic and magnetic behavior,” said Gross.</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">As reported in <i>Nature Chemistry</i> this is the first time that a reversible Bergman cyclization has been demonstrated.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/463/19305686289_baba0887a7_n.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><img border="0" src="https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/463/19305686289_baba0887a7_n.jpg" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">IBM scientist Bruno Schuler</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">Professor Pe</span><span lang="ES-TRAD" style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">ñ</span><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">a adds, “This work suggests the great potential of this technique to discover unexpected new reactions. In conventional solution chemistry, after so many decades of rigorous research, the chances of finding new important reactions are quite limited. Compared to this, single-molecule chemistry by tip manipulation is in its infancy, and I expect extremely exciting discoveries in the near future.”</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;">The next steps for the team will be to synthesize large custom-designed molecules and molecular networks with the tip that cannot be made by any other means. The team is also interested in exploring new applications for molecules, such as molecular logic devices based on single-electron transfer. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><br /></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif; font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://researcher.watson.ibm.com/researcher/view.php?person=zurich-BSC">Bruno Schuler</a>, IBM postdoc and first author of the paper, adds, “The molecules we have investigated here are promising building blocks for molecular logic devices. We can envision forming networks with covalent bonds established between these radicals. Moreover, the switching of the molecules, effecting its transport and magnetic properties, might be useful functions for such devices in the future.”</span><br /><span style="font-family: "helvetica neue" , "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 13.0pt; line-height: 107%;"><br /></span><span style="font-size: large; line-height: 107%;"><a href="http://www.cchem.berkeley.edu/rgbgrp/">Prof. Robert Bergman</a> shared his excitement on the paper with IBM scientists via email commenting, "When we first reported this reaction I had no idea that it would be biologically relevant, or that the reaction could someday be visualized at the molecular level."</span></span><br /><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue';"><br /></i><i style="font-family: 'helvetica neue';">Read the paper here: </i><i><span style="background-color: rgba(255 , 255 , 255 , 0.54902); color: #333333; font-family: "lato" , "helvetica neue" , "helvetica" , "arial" , sans-serif;">Reversible Bergman cyclization by atomic manipulation,” Nature Chemistry, AOP 25 Jan 2016, doi: </span><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nchem.2438" style="-webkit-transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s; background-position: 0px 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #d32605; font-family: Lato, 'Helvetica Neue', Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; transition: all 0.1s ease-out 0s;" target="_blank">10.1038/nchem.2438</a></i></div><div class="MsoNormal"><br /></div><br /><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3821464279005499761" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a><a href="https://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=3821464279005499761" style="background-color: transparent; background-image: url(data:image/png; border: none; cursor: pointer; display: none; height: 20px; opacity: 0.85; position: absolute; width: 40px; z-index: 8675309;"></a>

30 Years of Atomic Force Microscopy: IBM Scientists Trigger and Observe Reactions in an Individual Molecule

AFM atomic force microscopy CiQUS IBM Research - Zurich nano 30 Years of Atomic Force Microscopy: IBM Scientists Trigger and Observe Reactions in an Individual Molecule

Once again, IBM scientists are opening the eyes of the world to objects that exist only at the atomic scale. In a new paper appearing today...

30 Years of Atomic Force Microscopy: IBM Scientists Trigger and Observe Reactions in an Individual Molecule

Molecule Suggested in 1902 Gets its First Close-Up