AFM-Induced Amine Deprotection:  Triggering Localized Bond Cleavage by Application of Tip/Substrate Voltage Bias for the Surface Self-Assembly of Nanosized Dendritic Objects

An alpha,alpha-dimethyl-3,5-dimethoxybenzyloxycarbonyl (DDZ)-protected amine monolayer can be selectively deprotected by the application of a voltage bias from a conducting AFM tip to afford localized nanoscale patterns that can be visualized by self-assembly of dendritic molecular objects with terminal carboxylic acid groups and different aspect ratios.