Mjazik, ZsoltPavliček, NikoVilas-Varela, ManuelPérez Meirás, María DoloresMoll, NikolajGuitián Rivera, EnriqueMeyer, GehrardPeña Gil, DiegoGross, Leo2018-06-112018-06-112018-03-22Majzik, Z., Pavliček, N., Vilas-Varela, M., Pérez, D., Moll, N., & Guitián, E. et al. (2018). Studying an antiaromatic polycyclic hydrocarbon adsorbed on different surfaces. Nature Communications, 9(1). http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-03368-92041-1723http://hdl.handle.net/10347/16779Antiaromatic and open-shell molecules are attractive because of their distinct electronic and magnetic behaviour. However, their increased reactivity creates a challenge for probing their properties. Here, we describe the on-surface and in-solution generation and characterisation of a highly reactive antiaromatic molecule: indeno[1,2-b]fluorene (IF). In solution, we generated IF by KI-induced dehalogenation of a dibromo-substituted precursor molecule and found that IF survives for minutes at ambient conditions. Using atom manipulation at low temperatures we generated IF on Cu(111) and on bilayer NaCl. On these surfaces, we characterised IF by bond-order analysis using non-contact atomic force microscopy with CO-functionalised tips and by orbital imaging using scanning tunnelling microscopy. We found that the closed-shell configuration and antiaromatic character predicted for gas-phase IF are preserved on the NaCl film. On Cu(111), we observed significant bond-order reorganisation within the s-indacene moiety because of chemisorption, highlighting the importance of molecule surface interactions on the π-electron distributioneng© The Author(s) 2018. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/4.0/Atribución 4.0 Internacionalhttp://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Electronic properties and materialsScanning probe microscopyStructure elucidationjournal article10.1038/s41467-018-03368-9open access