In collaboration with colleagues from Berlin and Madrid, PRESTO-JST scientist Shigeki Kawai et al., at the Department of Physics at the University of Basel have pulled up isolated molecular chains from a gold surface, using the tip of an atomic force microscope (AFM). The observed signal provides insight into the detachment force and binding energy of molecules. The presented investigations are not only of interest for the field of physics, but also for biology and chemistry, since the method of pulling polymers from surfaces can also be applied to biological molecules.
Researcher Information
JST PRESTO
Research Area : "Molecular technology and creation of new functions"
Research Theme :"Revealing mechanical, electronic, and chemical properties of molecules at atomic-scale"
Journal Information
Shigeki Kawai, Matthias Koch, Enrico Gnecco, Ali Sadeghi, Rémy Pawlak, Thilo Glatzel, Jutta Schwarz, Stefan Goedecker, Stefan Hecht, Alexis Baratoff, Leonhard Grill, and Ernst Meyer.
“Quantifying the atomic-level mechanics of single long physisorbed molecular chains”
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, Published online 3 March 2014
doi :10.1073/pnas.1319938111
Contact
[About Research]
Shigeki Kawai, Dr.
Senior Scientist, Department of Physics, University of Basel
E-mail: 
URL: http://nanolino.unibas.ch/pages/group/shigeki.htm
[About Program]
Koji Matsuo, Masashi Furukawa, Kazuo Hirasawa
Green Innovation Group, Department of Innovation Research, JST
E-mail: 