Van der Waals interactions and the limits of isolated atom models at interfaces.
- Kawai S International Center for Materials Nanoarchitectonics, National Institute for Materials Science, 1-1, Namiki, Tsukuba, 305-0044 Ibaraki, Japan.
- Foster AS COMP, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, PO Box 11100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
- Björkman T COMP, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, PO Box 11100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
- Nowakowska S Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
- Björk J Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University, Linköping 58183, Sweden.
- Canova FF COMP, Department of Applied Physics, Aalto University, PO Box 11100, FI-00076 Aalto, Finland.
- Gade LH Anorganisch-Chemisches Institut, Universität Heidelberg, Im Neuenheimer Feld 270, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany.
- Jung TA Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
- Meyer E Department of Physics, University of Basel, Klingelbergstrasse 82, CH-4056 Basel, Switzerland.
- 2016-05-14
Published in:
- Nature communications. - 2016
English
Van der Waals forces are among the weakest, yet most decisive interactions governing condensation and aggregation processes and the phase behaviour of atomic and molecular matter. Understanding the resulting structural motifs and patterns has become increasingly important in studies of the nanoscale regime. Here we measure the paradigmatic van der Waals interactions represented by the noble gas atom pairs Ar-Xe, Kr-Xe and Xe-Xe with a Xe-functionalized tip of an atomic force microscope at low temperature. Individual rare gas atoms were fixed at node sites of a surface-confined two-dimensional metal-organic framework. We found that the magnitude of the measured force increased with the atomic radius, yet detailed simulation by density functional theory revealed that the adsorption induced charge redistribution strengthened the van der Waals forces by a factor of up to two, thus demonstrating the limits of a purely atomic description of the interaction in these representative systems.
- Language
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- English
- Open access status
- gold
- Identifiers
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- DOI 10.1038/ncomms11559
- PMID 27174162
- Persistent URL
- https://folia.unifr.ch/global/documents/246618
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