REACSURF

Controlled surface reactions by molecular transfer in vacuo

Internal reference number 24/29-139
Start date 01/09/2024, end date : 31/08/2029

Reactivity on surfaces in the absence of solvent is an important topic of fundamental research, as it might well be at the origin of life and complexity in our universe, and an inspiration for new technological applications. In that context, REACSURF’s main goal is to fabricate and control the reactivity of (supra)molecular (bio)systems on surfaces in the vacuum, owing to a novel approach, in which gas cluster ion beams are employed to transfer complex (bio)molecules or their structural units from one solid sample to the surface of interest. By the interplay of carefully selected molecular targets, transfer conditions and collector surfaces, we investigate the reactivity of organic and biological systems of increasing complexity and involving both covalent and non-covalent interactions: from ordered synthetic oligomers (foldamers) and small peptides to functional polymers and proteins. 

In a first research axis, the reactivity of the landing molecules with the (tailored) surface is explored, including its effects on the conformational organization of the molecules, their molecular recognition and/or their covalent attachment. In a second research direction, we investigate reactivity between the landing molecules, radical or fragments, promoted by the transformation of their energy upon impact, with the surface acting as a heat sink. Reactive transfer will enable the formation of oligomers and polymer-like coatings with a range of properties that is intermediate between regular and plasma polymers. These studies are supported by cutting-edge surface characterization methods and molecular dynamics computer simulations, providing mechanistic explanations and guidance to the experiments.

The development of this novel approach to induce specific reactions between molecules and to build supramolecular architectures on surfaces in the absence of solvent comes with a great potential to improve our knowledge of surface chemistry, but also to devise alternative routes to classical liquid-phase methods for the elaboration of complex nanoengineered functional layers that could be used in various fields of application such as smart coatings, organic electronics and biomedicine.