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Posted: March 29, 2009

Inexpensive molecular force probe stretches molecules replaces AFM to strech molecules

"By pulling on different pairs of atoms, we can explore what happens when we stretch a molecule in different ways," said chemistry professor Roman Boulatov. "That information tells us a lot about the properties of fleeting structures called transition states that govern how, and how fast, chemical transformations occur."
Boulatov, research associate Qing-Zheng Yang, postdoctoral researcher Daria Khvostichenko, and graduate students Zhen Huang and Timothy Kucharski describe the molecular force probe and present early results in a paper accepted for publication in Nature Nanotechnology. The paper is to be posted on the journal's Web site on Sunday (March 29).
"Localized reactions offer the best opportunity to gain fundamental insights into the interplay of reaction rates and molecular restoring forces," Boulatov said, "but these reactions are extremely difficult to study with a microscopic force probe."
"By replacing microscopic force probes with small molecules like stiff stilbene, we can study the relationship between restoring force and reaction rate for localized reactions," Boulatov said. "The more accurately we know where our probe acts, the better control we have over the distortion, and the easier it is to interpret the results."
"Unlike a rubber band, which will always break faster when stretched, pulling on some chemical bonds doesn't make them break any faster; and sometimes it's a bond that you don't pull on that will break instead of the one you do pull," Boulatov said. "That's because experiences in the macroscopic world do not map particularly well to the molecular world."
"Even small molecules will stretch and deform in many different ways," Boulatov said, "making the study of molecular forces even more intriguing."
Source: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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