Surface-assisted dehydrogenative homocoupling and cyclodehydrogenation of mesityl groups on a copper surface†
Abstract
We present for the first time an adjacent dehydrogenative homocoupling and cyclodehydrogenation reaction of mesityl groups to form a synthetic nanoribbon on Cu(110). Submolecular resolution scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) observations and density functional theory (DFT) calculations confirm the formation of an ethylene (–CHCH–) unit or an aromatic six-membered ring group.