Interfacial liquid layers play a central role in a variety of phenomena ranging from friction to molecular recognition. Liquids near a solid surface form an interfacial layer where the molecular structure is different from that of the bulk. Here we report atomic resolution three-dimensional images of electrolyte solutions near a mica surface that demonstrate the existence of three types of interfacial structures. At low concentrations (0.01–1 M), cations are adsorbed onto the mica. The cation layer is topped by a few hydration layers. At higher concentrations, the interfacial layer extends several nanometres into the liquid. It involves the alternation of cation and anion planes. Fluid Density Functional calculations show that water molecules are a critical factor for stabilizing the structure of the interfacial layer. The interfacial layer stabilizes a crystal-like structure compatible with liquid-like ion and solvent mobilities. At saturation, some ions precipitate and small crystals are formed on the mica.

Various two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotropes with nonalternant topologies, such as pentaheptites and phagraphene, have been proposed. Predictions indicate that these metastable carbon polymorphs, which contain odd-numbered rings, possess unusual (opto)electronic properties. However, none of these materials has been achieved experimentally due to synthetic challenges. In this work, by using on-surface synthesis, nanoribbons of the nonalternant graphene allotropes, phagraphene and tetrapenta-hepta(TPH)-graphene, have been obtained by dehydrogenative C−C coupling of 2,6-polyazulene chains. These chains were formed in a preceding reaction step via on-surface Ullmann coupling of 2,6-dibromoazulene. Low-temperature scanning probe microscopies with CO-functionalized tips and density functional theory calculations have been used to elucidate their structural properties. The proposed synthesis of nonalternant carbon nanoribbons from the fusion of synthetic line-defects may pave the way for large-area preparation of novel 2D carbon allotropes.

The synthesis of cycloarenes in solution is challenging because of their low solubility and the often hindered cyclodehydrogenation reaction of their nonplanar precursors. Using an alternative on-surface synthesis protocol, we achieved an unprecedented double-stranded hexagonal cycloarene containing 108 sp2 carbon atoms. Its synthesis is based on hierarchical Ullmann coupling and cyclodehydrogenation of a specially designed precursor on a Au(111) surface. The structure and other properties of the cycloarene are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and density functional theory calculations.

The structure and the role of the interfacial water in mediating the interactions of extended hydrophobic surfaces are not well understood. Two-dimensional materials provide a variety of large and atomically flat hydrophobic surfaces to facilitate our understanding of hydrophobic interactions. The angstrom resolution capabilities of three-dimensional AFM are exploited to image the interfacial water organization on graphene, few-layer MoS 2 and few-layer WSe 2 . Those interfaces are characterized by the existence of a 2 nm thick region above the solid surface where the liquid density oscillates. The distances between adjacent layers for graphene, few-layer MoS 2 and WSe 2 are ~0.50 nm. This value is larger than the one predicted and measured for water density oscillations (~0.30 nm). The experiments indicate that on extended hydrophobic surfaces water molecules are expelled from the vicinity of the surface and replaced by several molecular-size hydrophobic layers.

Fast, accurate, and robust nanomechanical measurements are intensely studied in materials science, applied physics, and molecular biology. Amplitude modulation force microscopy (tapping mode) is the most established nanoscale characterization technique of surfaces for air and liquid environments. However, its quantitative capabilities lag behind its high spatial resolution and robustness. We develop a general method to transform the observables into quantitative force measurements. The force reconstruction algorithm has been deduced on the assumption that the observables (amplitude and phase shift) are slowly varying functions of the tip-surface separation. The accuracy and applicability of the method is validated by numerical simulations and experiments. The method is valid for liquid and air environments, small and large free amplitudes, compliant and rigid materials, and conservative and non-conservative forces.