THE PROJECT

PHOTOSURF-CM is a three-year research project (July 2021-June 2024) entitled “Photochemical synthesis on surfaces" funded by the Community of Madrid under the Call for Synergy Projects 2021 (Ref. Y2020/NMT-6469).

In this website, you will find information on the objectives and research activities within the project, the people involved, publications and contact details.

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CONTEXT

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Photochemical and photophysical processes are closely related to important events such as the appearance of life on Earth or the development of humanity. However, current technology does not take full advantage of the potential of solar energy reaching the planet. Today more than ever, society urgently needs to find new efficient protocols based on renewable energy, such as sunlight, to develop sustainable industrial processes. On the other hand, nanotechnology through bottomup procedures and thermal activation processes has given rise to new molecular nanoarchitectures and low dimensional materials, such as graphene and its derivatives, with surprising properties.

Nowadays, most of the molecular materials on surfaces have been generated using thermally activated process helped by the reaction barrier reduction induced by the catalytic properties of the supporting metals. Only a few specific cases have been reported on the viability of visible light activation on metals, but there are no previous works on insulating surfaces. These surfaces have a high technological interest as they allow the direct use of the nanostructure on the surface without requiring a transfer process.

PROJECT GOALS:

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In PHOTOSURF, we will study the viability of known photochemical reactions in solution, such as [2+2] cycloaddition, to be carried out directly on atomically controlled surfaces using advanced ultrahigh vacuum instrumentation. The processes that operate in solution and in vacuum can be completely different and, therefore, only a synergistic and complementary approach can establish which are the fundamental mechanisms of a new, interdisciplinary field of high technological interest that we will call photochemical synthesis on surfaces.

Our project will advance towards the development of sustainable chemical methodologies based on sunlight that allows the direct synthesis of new low dimensional nanostructures on arbitrary surfaces. PHOTOSURF aims to combine photochemical synthesis and surface physics to develop new reaction pathways that give rise to a new photochemical synthesis induced by sunlight in two dimensions that allows obtaining sustainable nanostructures, both in the methodology used for their formation and in the possible applications they may have.