We have studied the organometallic intermediate of a surface-supported Ullmann coupling reaction from 4, 4″-dibromo-p-terphenyl to poly(para-phenylene) by scanning tunneling microscopy/spectroscopy and density functional theory calculations. Our study reveals at a single-molecular level that the intermediate consists of biradical terphenyl (ph)(3) units that are connected by single Cu atoms through C-Cu-C bridges. Upon further increasing the temperature, the neighboring biradical (ph)(3) units are coupled by C-C bonds forming poly(para-phenylene) oligomers while the Cu atoms are released.

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We have investigated the segregation of Pt atoms in the surfaces of Pt-Ni nanoparticles, using Modified Embedded Atom Model potentials and the Monte Carlo method. The nanoparticles are assumed to have disordered fcc configurations at two fixed overall concentrations (50 at.% Pt and 75 at.% Pt). We use four kinds of nanoparticle shapes [cube, tetrahedron, octahedron, and cubo-octahedron] terminated by {111} and {100} facets to examine the extent of the Pt segregation to the nanoparticle surfaces and determine the equilibrium structures of Pt-Ni nanoparticles at T=600 K. The model particles contain between 560 and 4631 atoms (particle size ranging from 2.5 to 5 nm).Our results imply that a complete {100}-facet reconstruction could make the cubooctahendral Pt-Ni nanoparticles most energetically favorable, consistent with experimental observations. We predict that at 600 K due to segregation the equilibrium Pt 50 Ni 50 nanoparticles with fewer than 2000 atoms and Pt 75 Ni 25 nanoparticles with fewer than 4000 atoms would achieve a surface-sandwich structure, in which the Pt atoms are enriched in the outermost and third atomic shells while the Ni atoms are enriched in the second atomic shell. We also find that due to an order-disorder transition the Pt 50 Ni 50 cubo-octahedral nanoparticles containing more than 2000 atoms would form a core-shell structure with a Pt-enriched surface and a Pt-deficient homogenous core. *Corresponding