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Fundamental understanding of chemistry confined to nanospace remains a challenge since molecules encapsulated in confined microenvironments are difficult to be characterized. Here, we show that CO adsorption on Pt(111) confined under monolayer hexagonal boron nitride (h-BN) can be dynamically imaged using near ambient pressure scanning tunneling microscope (NAP-STM) and thanks to tunneling transparency of the top h-BN layer. The observed CO superstructures on Pt(111) in different CO atmospheres allow to derive surface coverages of CO adlayers, which are higher in the confined nanospace between h-BN and Pt(111) than those on the open Pt surface under the same conditions. Dynamic NAP-STM imaging data together with theoretical calculations confirm confinement-induced molecule enrichment effect within the 2D nanospace, which reveals new chemistry aroused by the confined nanoreactor.
This work was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21688102, 21621063, 91545204, and 21703274), the Ministry of Science and Technology of China (No. 2016YFA0200200), and the Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (No. XDB17020000). The authors are grateful for the support for Nano-X from Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Sciences (SINANO) and discussions with Dr. Yang Yang and Dr. Haobo Li.