First ever images of molecules before and after reaction

[jonesy]

http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2013...mages-of-molecules-before-and-after-reaction/

Using a state-of-the-art atomic force microscope, scientists have taken the first atom-by-atom pictures, including images of the chemical bonds between atoms, clearly depicting how a molecule’s structure changed during a reaction.

It's almost crazy that they look like that. I mean, you play with the models in school, but you assume they're represantions and there's something different about the real things. But nope, there they are.

 

[El Mahdi]

deleted

 

[Funkmaster Rick]

Is it weird that seeing this for the first time feels a little spiritual?

 

[Random Bystander]

Is it weird that seeing this for the first time feels a little spiritual?

What's sad is that not everyone does.

 

[tomBitonti]

Very cool.

Although, what is being "seen" needs to be carefully understood. The image seems to be a composite of probes of the molecule.

Still, very cool. Interesting that the left hand structure seems relatively undistorted compared with an ideal graph, but the right hand structure shows a lot of distortion.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Scott DeWar]

I wonder at what tempreature is column a.

 

[tomBitonti]

I wonder at what temperature is column a.

Both A and B are at 4K. From the linked article:

That’s when he approached Crommie, who uses atomic force microscopes to probe the surfaces of materials with atomic resolution and even move atoms around individually on a surface. Working together, they devised a way to chill the reaction surface and molecules to the temperature of liquid helium – about 4 Kelvin, or 270 degrees Celsius below zero – which stops the molecules from jiggling around. They then used a scanning tunneling microscope to locate all the molecules on the surface, and zeroed in on several to probe more finely with the atomic force microscope. To enhance the spatial resolution of their microscope they put a single carbon monoxide molecule on the tip, a technique called non-contact AFM first used by Gerhard Meyer and collaborators at IBM Zurich to image molecules several years ago.

After imaging the molecule – a “cyclic” structure with several hexagonal rings of carbon that Fischer created especially for this experiment – Fischer, Crommie and their colleagues heated the surface until the molecule reacted, and then again chilled the surface to 4 Kelvin and imaged the reaction products.

Thx!

TomB

 

[Scott DeWar]

very cool!
actually at 4 K, very cold. brrrrrrr

 

[true-darkmoon]

This is just stunning, can you imagine what the guy watching this was thinking

 

[Scott DeWar]

This is just stunning, can you imagine what the guy watching this was thinking

"Oh wow! Way cool!!"