Adsorbed Hypostrophene:
Can it roll on a surface by rearrangement of bonds?
Bidisa Das and K.L. Sebastian*
Inorganic & Physical Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Science,
Bangalore 560 012 India
This is an abstract
for a presentation given at the
Eighth
Foresight Conference on Molecular Nanotechnology.
There will be a link from here to the full article when it is
available on the web.
Hypostrophene undergoes degenerate Cope rearrangement and hence is a fluxional molecule. We have performed a theoretical investigation of hypostrophene adsorbed on the (100) surface of Aluminum. We find that chemisorbed hypostrophene can undergo a similar rearrangement involving only single bonds with an activation energy of approximately 14.5 kcal/mol. This rearrangement involves a rolling motion of the molecule on the surface and the result is a hypostrophene molecule adsorbed on the neighboring site. In comparison with this, the usual diffusional motion has an activation energy about five times larger and hence we expect this rolling to be the dominant mechanism of diffusion of the molecule on the surface. The activation energy for degenerate Cope rearrangement of free hypostrophene is found to be 22.2 kcal/mol (theoretical) and the metal brings down this value, even though the adsorbed molecule has no double bonds in it.
*Corresponding Address:
Kizhakeyil Lukose Sebastian
Inorganic & Physical Chemistry Department, Indian Institute of Science
Bangalore 560 012 India
Email: [email protected]
Web: http://ipc.iisc.ernet.in/~kls
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