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Mechanochemistry: the varied applications of mechanical bond-breaking

“…The pull-off technique (single-molecule force) has been outlined. 161 An AFM tip is covered with gold and bound to molecules of interest via a tether with thiol end group to form a unimolecular layer. The other ends of the tip molecules or different molecules are similarly bound to a gold surface.…”

“…Force ratios of 1 : 2 and 1 : 3 for the two enantiomers by measurements in ethanol allowed chiral recognition. 161,168 Covalent weak disulfide bonds of an octameric protein with 8 disulfide bonds were immobilized between a surface and an AFM tip and stretched with various forces below the breaking level to obtain rate constants for thiol-initiated and phosphine-initiated reduction into thiols. Such reduction depended exponentially on the constant force settings.…”