The coordination of Metal-Salen to diatomic molecules

Salen is a Schiff base complex which is condensed from salicylaldehyde and ethylenediamine. The chemical, electronic and magnetic properties of metal-salen could be altered by adjusting the central metals. These metal-salen register wide applications in materials science, heterogeneous catalysis, geology, biology and so on due to the diversity of their properties.
Thanks to the invention of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) in 1980s, people are able to observe the single atoms and molecules. Up to date, the morphological and electronic properties of metal-salen have been systematically studied in surface science. However, their catalytic performances have not been fully explored. Therefore, this proposal focuses on the coordination of several metal-salen complexes to diatomic molecules (such as CO) as well as analyses of its morphological and electronic properties with STM and surface science techniques. Specifically, Metal-Salen as a surface model catalyst will be extensively explored to uncover its catalytic properties towards small molecules.