9707195 Ho This project aims to use variable low temperature scanning tunneling microscopy operating under ultrahigh vacuum conditions to induce and view directly the dissociation and formation of chemical bonds with atomic resolution of molecules adsorbed on metal surfaces. Chemistry is reduced to studying single molecules in isolation, including the structure and reactivity of individual bonds in a molecule, and as other molecules are brought to the isolated molecule one at a time. The overall complexity encountered in an ensemble of many interacting molecules will be removed and added in a controlled way. %%% This investigation will provide important advances in our understanding of chemical and biological systems. The study of the intrinsic properties of single molecules (isolated from intermolecular or collective or environmental effects) and their controlled interactions and reactions with other molecules is relevant to the advancement of emerging technologies such as those based on electronic and optical nanostructured materials. ***
