Visualization and thermodynamic encoding of single-molecule partition function projections

Carlos-Andres Palma (), Jonas Björk, Florian Klappenberger, Emmanuel Arras, Dirk Kühne, Sven Stafström and Johannes V. Barth ()
Additional contact information
Carlos-Andres Palma: Technische Universität München
Jonas Björk: Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University
Florian Klappenberger: Technische Universität München
Emmanuel Arras: Technische Universität München
Dirk Kühne: Technische Universität München
Sven Stafström: Chemistry and Biology (IFM), Linköping University
Johannes V. Barth: Technische Universität München

Nature Communications, 2015, vol. 6, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Ensemble averaging of molecular states is fundamental for the experimental determination of thermodynamic quantities. A special case occurs for single-molecule investigations under equilibrium conditions, for which free energy, entropy and enthalpy at finite temperatures are challenging to determine with ensemble averaging alone. Here we report a method to directly record time-averaged equilibrium probability distributions by confining an individual molecule to a nanoscopic pore of a two-dimensional metal-organic nanomesh, using temperature-controlled scanning tunnelling microscopy. We associate these distributions with partition function projections to assess real-space-projected thermodynamic quantities, aided by computational modelling. The presented molecular dynamics-based analysis is able to reproduce experimentally observed projected microstates with high accuracy. By an in silico customized energy landscape, we demonstrate that distinct probability distributions can be encrypted at different temperatures. Such modulation provides means to encode and decode information into position–temperature space.

Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms7210 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:6:y:2015:i:1:d:10.1038_ncomms7210

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/ncomms7210

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().