Université de Fribourg

Mechanically induced cis-to-trans isomerization of carbon–carbon double bonds using atomic force microscopy

Radiom, Milad ; Kong, Phally ; Maroni, Plinio ; Schäfer, Mark ; Kilbinger, Andreas F. M. ; Borkovec, Michal

In: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, 2016, vol. 18, no. 45, p. 31202–31210

Cis-to-trans isomerization of carbon–carbon double bonds can be induced by the application of mechanical force. Using single molecule force spectroscopy by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) we pulled polymer molecules which contained cis double bonds in the backbone. In the force versus extension profiles of these polymers, a sudden extension increase is observed which is due to the...