Molecular Chessboard Assemblies Sorted by Site-Specific Interactions of Out-of-Plane d-Orbitals with a Semimetal Template.
We show that highly ordered two-dimensional (2D) chessboard arrays consisting of a periodic arrangement of two different molecules can be obtained by self-assembly of unsubstituted metal-phthalocyanines (metal-Pcs) on a suitable substrate serving as the template. Specifically, CuPc + MnPc and CuPc + CoPc mixtures sort into highly ordered Cu/Mn and Cu/Co chessboard arrays on the square p(10 × 10) reconstruction of bismuth on Cu(100). Such created bimolecular chessboard assemblies emerge from the site-specific interactions between the central transition-metal ions and the periodically reconstructed substrate. This work provides a conceptually new approach to induce 2D chessboard patterns in that no functionalization of the molecules is needed.
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Aneliia
A
Wäckerlin
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.|Departamento de Física Aplicada, Instituto de Física Gleb Wataghin, Universidade Estadual de Campinas , Campinas 13083-859, Brazil.
Shadi
S
Fatayer
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Thomas
T
Nijs
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Sylwia
S
Nowakowska
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
S Fatemeh
SF
Mousavi
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Olha
O
Popova
Department of Physics, University of Basel , 4056 Basel, Switzerland.
Aisha
A
Ahsan
Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut , 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
Thomas A
TA
Jung
Laboratory for Micro- and Nanotechnology, Paul Scherrer Institut , 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland.
Christian
0000-0001-6587-1235
C
Wäckerlin
Bimolecular self-assembly; phthalocyanine; semimetal; site-specific interactions; template substrate