Self-assembly is a promising bottom-up route towards atomically precise fabrication of functional systems.[1] Nanoporous networks [2] that can host guest molecules [3,4] were obtained on metal surfaces under ultrahigh vacuum. Various supramolecular chemistry approaches have been applied [5][6][7][8][9] to obtain thermally [10,11] or chemically controlled [12,13] polymorphs. The spontaneous formation of patterns with hexagonal, [14] porous honeycomb, [15,16] or KagomØ [17] geometries has been also observed at the solution/solid interface. [18,19] The topologies, as well as the drastic structural changes often induced by minute changes in molecular structure [20] or solvent, [21] are usually explained a posteriori on the basis of molecular symmetry, molecule-substrate interactions, and moleculemolecule interactions. Interdigitation of alkyl chains is an example of the last-named [15,16,22,23] which is of practical interest since it is specific to the surface and does not occur in the bulk of the solution. Surprisingly, close-packed epitaxy of n-alkanes on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) [24][25][26] has not yet inspired the design of molecular linker exploiting this behavior.Hence, we designed a new molecular unit acting as a functional linking group able to form strong surface-assisted intermolecular "clips" which, by interdigitation, strictly mimic the atomically precise organization of n-alkanes on HOPG. It forms the basis of a design strategy which parallels polymer chemistry in that mono-, bi-, and trifunctional clipbearing building blocks form noncovalent surface dimers, polymers, and two-dimensional (2D) networks, respectively. We can then chemically steer the organization of these entities themselves at a higher supramolecular level.The adsorption of n-alkanes on HOPG results in the formation of close-packed 2D lamellae of parallel-aligned rectilinear chains, oriented along the h100i direction of graphite [19,25,26] according to the Groszek model [24] (Figure 1 A). Organization of the adsorbed monolayers is driven by two main factors: The first is the correspondence between the zigzag alternation of methylene groups and the h100i direction of HOPG, with a stabilization energy of about 64 meV per methylene group.[27] The second is the parallel packing of alkane molecules, which, besides steric hindrance, results from a stabilization energy between nearest chains 4.1 apart. From theoretical estimations, [28] we can infer 2D crystallization energies on the order of 20-25 meV per pair of facing methylene groups.