Near-ambient pressure reactivity of self-assembled metal-organic monolayers at surfaces: spectroscopic characterization with laser light and synchrotron radiation

The design of novel biomimetic 2D functional materials is attracting increasing attention in the fields of energy harvesting, conversion, and storage. Nevertheless, a clear understanding of the link between these synthetic  materials and their biochemical counterpart is lacking for limitations in accessing a detailed, atomic-level description at ambient conditions and for the intrinsic limits of 2D materials in reproducing the 3D local functional second-coordination sphere of natural biochemical pockets. The activities will tackle the role of the latter, by synthesizing model 2D materials through self-assembly of molecular tectons, including 3D single-atom sites, and by investigating lateral, support (gold, graphene), solvent, ligands, and light interactions at the fundamental level by means of laser-based non-linear InfraRed-Visible Sum-Frequency Generation (IR-Vis SFG) spectroscopy, surface science methods, also exploiting synchrotron radiation, in UHV and at near-ambient pressure.