Abstract
The hollow core inside a carbon nanotube1 can be used to confine single molecules2,3 and it is now possible to image the movement of such molecules inside nanotubes4,5. To date, however, it has not been possible to control this motion, nor to detect the forces moving the molecules, despite experimental and theoretical evidence suggesting that almost friction-free motion might be possible inside the nanotubes6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13. Here, we report on precise measurements of the mechanical responses of individual metallofullerene molecules (Dy@C82) confined inside single-walled carbon nanotubes to the atom at the tip of an atomic force microscope operated in dynamic mode14,15. Using three-dimensional force mapping with atomic resolution16, we addressed the molecules from the exterior of the nanotube and measured their elastic and inelastic behaviour by simultaneously detecting the attractive forces and energy losses with three-dimensional, atomic-scale resolution.
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Acknowledgements
We thank L. Fan for sample preparation. Financial support from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft and from the Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center Hamburg (INCH) is gratefully acknowledged. D.O., S.Y. and A.N.K. are supported by the project CARDECOM, Research Grant Council of Hong Kong, and the European Science Foundation and Royal Society, respectively.
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M.A., S.R. and R.W. conceived the experiments. M.A. designed and performed the experiments. M.A. and R.W. analysed the data. D.O., M.H., S.Y., A.N.K. and S.R. contributed materials. M.A. wrote the paper with the assistance of D.O. and A.N.K. All authors discussed the results and commented on the manuscript.
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Ashino, M., Obergfell, D., Haluška, M. et al. Atomically resolved mechanical response of individual metallofullerene molecules confined inside carbon nanotubes. Nature Nanotech 3, 337–341 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.126
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2008.126
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