IUVSTA 15th International Vacuum Congress (IVC-15), AVS 48th International Symposium (AVS-48), 11th International Conference on Solid Surfaces (ICSS-11)
    Organic Films and Devices Thursday Sessions
       Session OF+TF-ThP

Paper OF+TF-ThP2
Tuning Supramolecular Self-assembly of Trimesic Acid Molecules on Cu(100) by Copper Adatoms

Thursday, November 1, 2001, 5:30 pm, Room 134/135

Session: Aspects of Organic Films Poster Session
Presenter: N. Lin, Max-Planck-Institut for Solid State Physics, Germany
Authors: A. Dmitriev, Max-Planck-Institut for Solid State Physics, Germany
N. Lin, Max-Planck-Institut for Solid State Physics, Germany
J. Weckesser, Max-Planck-Institut for Solid State Physics, Germany
J.V. Barth, EPFL, Switzerland
K. Kern, Max-Planck-Institut for Solid State Physics, Germany and EPFL, Switzerland
Correspondent: Click to Email
Recently, it was reported that one-dimensional supramolecular nanostructures can be realized via intermolecular hydrogen bonding.@footnote 1@ Here we demonstrate that, for the system trimesic acid (TMA) on Cu(100), one can tune the intermolecular hydrogen bonding by adjusting the density and mobility of Cu adatoms and hence fabricate various supramolecular nanostructures. In our experiments submonolayers of TMA on Cu(100) have been prepared by organic molecular beam epitaxy (OMBE) under ultrahigh vacuum and in situ characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). The TMA molecules are parallel to the surface (flat-lying) as deposited and form hydrogen-bonded chicken-wire networks via dimerization of their carboxylic acid groups.@footnote 2@ These networks are only stable at low-temperatures (< 250 K) and at room-temperature rapidly transform into a stripe-like structure, where the TMA molecules are perpendicular to the surface (up-standing). By means of CO predosing, Cu coevaporation or adjustment of the substrate temperature the Cu adatom density and mobility have been controlled, which allows to convert the hydrogen bonded carboxylic acid dimers into copper-carboxylate complexes.@footnote 3@ Sequences of STM images directly demonstrate the real time formation and dissociation of single chemical bonds in copper-coordinated supermolecules. Cu adatoms of high density and mobility finally leads to well-ordered two-dimensional supramolecular nanostructures of large domain size on the surface. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ J.V. Barth, J. Weckesser, C. Cai, P. Gunter, L. Bargi, O. Jeandupeux and K. Kern (2000) Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 39, 1230-1234 (Angew. Chem. 112, 1285-1288). @footnote 2@ S.V. Kolotuchin, P.A. Thiessen, E.E. Fenlon, S.R. Wilson, C.J. Loweth and S.C. Zimmerman (1999) Chem. Eur. J. 5 No. 9, 2537-2547. @footnote 3@ C.C. Perry, S. Haq, B.G. Frederick and N.V. Richardson (1998) Surf. Sci. 409, 512-520. .