Engineering porous and compact two-dimensional nanoarchitectures on surfaces taking advantage of bisterpyridine-derivatives self-assembly

Abstract

The self-assembly of two bis-terpyridine derivatives is experimentally investigated at the nanometer scale. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) reveals that two-dimensional compact and porous nanoarchitectures can be engineered by changing the length of terpyridine spacer; i.e. a benzene ring or a quaterthiophene (4T) unit. In both cases the molecular nanoarchitecture appears to be stabilized by double hydrogen-bonds between molecular terpyridine groups. The STM images suggest however that terpyridine groups adopt different conformations, s-cis and s-trans as well as s-trans and s-trans conformations, in the two self-assembled organic layers.