The covalent linking of acetylenes presents an important route for the fabrication of novel carbon-based scaffolds and two-dimensional materials distinct from graphene. To date few attempts have been reported to implement this strategy at well-defined interfaces or monolayer templates. Here we demonstrate through real space direct visualization and manipulation in combination with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations the Ag surface-mediated terminal alkyne C sp À H bond activation and concomitant homo-coupling in a process formally reminiscent of the classical Glaser-Hay type reaction. The alkyne homo-coupling takes place on the Ag(111) noble metal surface in ultrahigh vacuum under soft conditions in the absence of conventionally used transition metal catalysts and with volatile H 2 as the only by-product. With the employed multitopic ethynyl species, we demonstrate a hierarchic reaction pathway that affords discrete compounds or polymeric networks featuring a conjugated backbone. This presents a new approach towards on-surface covalent chemistry and the realization of two-dimensional carbon-rich or allcarbon polymers.

Ultrathin ordered titanium oxide films on Pt(111) surface are prepared by reactive evaporation of Ti in oxygen. By varying the Ti dose and the annealing conditions (i.e., temperature and oxygen pressure), six different long-range ordered phases are obtained. They are characterized by means of low-energy electron diffraction (LEED), X-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS), and scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). By careful optimization of the preparative parameters, we find conditions where predominantly single phases of TiO(x), revealing distinct LEED pattern and STM images, are produced. XPS binding energy and photoelectron diffraction (XPD) data indicate that all the phases, except one (the stoichiometric rect-TiO2), are one monolayer thick and composed of a Ti-O bilayer with interfacial Ti. Atomically resolved STM images confirm that these TiO(x) phases wet the Pt surface, in contrast to rect-TiO2. This indicates their interface stabilization. At a low Ti dose (0.4 monolayer equivalents, MLE), an incommensurate kagomé-like low-density phase (k-TiO(x) phase) is observed where hexagons are sharing their vertexes. At a higher Ti dose (0.8 MLE), two denser phases are found, both characterized by a zigzag motif (z- and z'-TiO(x) phases), but with distinct rectangular unit cells. Among them, z'-TiO(x), which is obtained by annealing in ultrahigh vacuum (UHV), shows a larger unit cell. When the postannealing of the 0.8 MLE deposit is carried out at high temperatures and high oxygen partial pressures, the incommensurate nonwetting, fully oxidized rect-TiO2 is found The symmetry and lattice dimensions are almost identical with rect-VO2, observed in the system VO(x)/Pd(111). At a higher coverage (1.2 MLE), two commensurate hexagonal phases are formed, namely the w- [(square root(43) x square root(43)) R 7.6 degrees] and w'-TiO(x) phase [(7 x 7) R 21.8 degrees]. They show wagon-wheel-like structures and have slightly different lattice dimensions. Larger Ti deposits produce TiO2 nanoclusters on top of the different monolayer films, as supported both by XPS and STM data. Besides the formation of TiO(x) surfaces phases, wormlike features are found on the bare parts of the substrate by STM. We suggest that these structures, probably multilayer disordered TiO2, represent growth precursors of the ordered phases. Our results on the different nanostructures are compared with literature data on similar systems, e.g., VO(x)/Pd(111), VO(x)/Rh(111), TiO(x)/Pd(111), TiO(x)/Pt(111), and TiO(x)/Ru(0001). Similar and distinct features are observed in the TiO(x)/Pt(111) case, which may be related to the different chemical natures of the overlayer and of the substrate.

Oxygen vacancies on metal oxide surfaces have long been thought to play a key role in the surface chemistry. Such processes have been directly visualized in the case of the model photocatalyst surface TiO 2 ð110Þ in reactions with water and molecular oxygen. These vacancies have been assumed to be neutral in calculations of the surface properties. However, by comparing experimental and simulated scanning tunneling microscopy images and spectra, we show that oxygen vacancies act as trapping centers and are negatively charged. We demonstrate that charging the defect significantly affects the reactivity by following the reaction of molecular oxygen with surface hydroxyl formed by water dissociation at the vacancies. Calculations with electronically charged hydroxyl favor a condensation reaction forming water and surface oxygen adatoms, in line with experimental observations. This contrasts with simulations using neutral hydroxyl where hydrogen peroxide is found to be the most stable product.The rutile TiO 2 ð110Þ surface, which we use as a model photocatalytic system here, is displayed as a ball model in Fig. 1A where the reduction of one oxygen atom of O 2 ðgÞ to one bridging oxide species (O 2− b ) is accomplished by oxidation of the two Ti 3þ sites associated with O b -vac to Ti 4þ (3), on the basis of a purely ionic model. (Formal charges are written in reactions 1 and 2 to highlight the redox processes involved.)The interaction of O 2 with OH b , on the other hand, is still a matter of controversy. Following the reaction of these species at temperatures ≤240 K, water is seen to desorb at ∼310 K in temperature programmed desorption (TPD) spectra (3, 4). Henderson et al. (3) concluded that this water evolution is a consequence of the formation of oxygen adatoms (O ad ) at the surface as follows:where the two Ti 3þ species provide the two electrons necessary to reduce one oxygen atom of O 2 ðgÞ to H 2 OðgÞ (3). In stark contrast to the TPD results, previous calculations find H 2 O 2 to be by far the most stable product (5). Moreover, on the basis of these calculations, water desorption is not expected up to the highest temperature computed, 350 K (5). This discrepancy provided the initial motivation for the present work. Results and DiscussionWe use STM to provide an additional experimental test of the picture that has emerged thus far. Fig. 1B shows a surface containing both O b -vac and OH b , alongside the same surface in Fig. 1C after it was exposed to 90 Langmuirs (L) O 2 at 300 K (1 L ¼ 1.33 × 10 −6 mbar · s, 1 mbar ¼ 100 Pa). A number of small, bright spots can be seen on the Ti 5c sites (bright rows) in the latter image. The histogram of the height distribution of these bright spots, shown in Fig. 1D, indicates that these bright spots are almost entirely due to one final product.It should be noted that at lower O 2 exposures we see a number of different types of species on Ti 5c rows that are likely to arise from terminal hydroxyls (OH t ) and other metastable species such as O 2 H. These latter results ...