The controllable growth of partially aligned monolayer to multilayer micrometer stripes was demonstrated by adjusting the pulling speed in a dip-coating process. The number of molecular layers decreases with the increasing pulling speed. A lower pulling speed yields mixed multilayers (3-9 monolayers). It is noteworthy that pure monolayer and bilayer microstripes over large areas can be obtained at high pulling speeds. The stripe morphology strongly depends on the pulling speed or the number of molecular layers. XRD and confocal fluorescence measurements manifest that monolayer stripes are amorphous, while multilayer stripes (> or = 2) consist of crystalline states. FET devices were fabricated on these stripes. Monolayer stripes failed to reveal a field effect due to their amorphous state. In contrast, multilayer stripes exhibit good field-effect behavior. This study provides useful information for future molecular design in controlling molecular architectures. The controllable growth from monolayer to multilayer offers a powerful experimental system for fundamental research into the real charge accumulation and transporting layers for OFETs.

Metallic surface nanopatterns are prepared by a template-confi ned dewetting process with multiple structural controllabilities. The morphology of the building blocks is homogeneous throughout the surface nanopatterns, as the dewetting process proceeds separately in each bowl. The features of the building units in the surface patterns are highly dependent on the annealing temperature. Importantly, the size and composition of the nanoparticles in the surface nanopatterns can be pre-calculated and designed by manipulating the thickness of the evaporated metallic fi lms. The heating temperature and composition of the building units infl uence the surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) and plasmonic properties, thus tuning the localized surface plasmon resonance peaks over a broad range (from visible to near infrared). The introduction of silver in the gold surface nanopatterns enhances the SERS performance dramatically. This work not only provides a powerful route to fabricate surface nanopatterns, but also supplies a platform to study the mechanism of the complicated dewetting processes of metals.

Pt(ii) and Pd(ii) complexes with unprecedented photophysical properties were developed. Encapsulation in nanoparticles boosted their performance while rendering them as self-referenced oxygen sensors.