Photochemistry Highlights on On‐Surface Synthesis
Résumé
On‐surface chemistry is a promising way to achieve the bottom‐up construction of covalently‐bonded molecular precursors into extended atomically‐precise polymers adsorbed on surfaces. These polymers exhibit unprecedented physical or chemical properties which are of great interest for various potential applications. These nanostructures were mainly obtained in ultra‐high vacuum (UHV) on noble metal single‐crystal surfaces by thermal annealing as stimulus to provoke the polymerization with a catalytic role of the surface adatoms. Nevertheless, photons are also a powerful source of energy to induce the formation of covalent architectures, even if it is less‐used on surfaces than in solution. In this minireview, we discuss the photo‐induced on‐surface polymerization from the basic mechanisms of photochemistry to the formation of extended polymers on different kinds of surfaces, which are characterized by scanning probe microscopies.