Watching how a covalent polymer develops using a scanning tunneling microscope

A team of researchers from KU Leuven, the University of Aveiro, OLYMAT, the University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU and the Ikerbasque, Basque Foundation for Science has used a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) to observe the formation of a 2D covalent polymer. In their paper published in the journal Nature, the group describes how they captured images of the stages involved in polymer development and then used simulations to complement the progression.