Interfacial supramolecular assemblies with advanced functions

Abstract

Supramolecular assemblies have a key component with regards to supramolecular electronics, the study of its self-assembly behavior as well as functional properties will bring great impact in the sense of understanding and improving the performance of such devices from a fundamental point of view. We study supramolecular assemblies of hexa-peri-hexabenzocoronene (HBC) derivatives bearing different substituents, adsorbed on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) by using scanning tunneling microscopy at the solidliquid interface. Two effects of intermolecular interaction were found to play a significant role in controlling the interfacial supramolecular assembly of these C 3symmetric HBC derivatives at the solid-liquid interface. One is hydrogen bonding interactions; the other is intermolecular dipole-dipole interactions. This work demonstrates how intermolecular interactions could enable fine control over the self-assembly of disk-like π-conjugated molecules. Furthermore, a host-guest system is established by utilizing the hydrogen bonding assisted honeycomb network established from HBC derivatives, and by incorporating coronene inside the porous structure, it offers potential applications such as use as molecular rectifiers in the future. Besides the bottom up approach of self-assembly of rigid molecules like HBC derivatives to establish a 2D π-conjugated structure, graphene has been vi