Steering On-Surface Reactions by a Self-Assembly Approach.
4,4'-Bis(2,6-difluoropyridin-4-yl)-1,1':4',1''-terphenyl (BDFPTP) molecules underwent dehydrocyclization and covalent coupling reactions on Au(111) according to scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) measurements and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Self-assembly of the reactants in well-defined molecular domains prior to reaction could greatly enhance the regioselectivity of the dehydrocyclization reaction and suppress defluorinated coupling, demonstrating that self-assembly can efficiently steer on-surface reactions. Such a strategy could be of great importance in surface chemistry and widely applied to control on-surface reactions.
BNLMS, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Qiwei
Q
Chen
Danish-Chinese Centre for Self-Assembly and Function of Molecular Nanostructures on Surfaces at iNANO and Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark.
Jacob R
JR
Cramer
BNLMS, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Jing
J
Liu
BNLMS, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Xin
X
Jin
School of Materials Engineering, Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, 47907, USA.
Peilin
P
Liao
Department of Chemical Physics, School of Chemistry and Materials Science, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China.
Xiang
X
Shao
Danish-Chinese Centre for Self-Assembly and Function of Molecular Nanostructures on Surfaces at iNANO and Department of Chemistry, Aarhus University, Aarhus C, 8000, Denmark.
Kurt V
KV
Gothelf
BNLMS, College of Chemistry and Molecular Engineering, Peking University, Beijing, 100871, China.
Kai
K
Wu
dehydrocyclization; density functional theory; on-surface reaction; scanning tunneling microscope; self-assembly