Tetracene Formation by On-Surface Reduction

We present the on-surface reduction of diepoxytetracenes to form genuine tetracene on Cu(111). The conversion is achieved by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) tip-induced manipulation as well as thermal activation and is conclusively demonstrated by means of atomic force microscopy (AFM) with atomic resolution. We observe that the metallic surface plays an important role in the deoxygenation and for the planarization after bond cleavage.