Paper SS-TuP11
Tuning Spontaneous Supramolecular Assembly via Manipulation of Intermolecular Forces and Growth Environment

Tuesday, October 22, 2019, 6:30 pm, Room Union Station B

This poster will detail the initial experiments attempting to exploit non-equilibrium growth conditions to manipulate the spontaneous assembly of functionalized porphyrin molecules at the solid interface. Rapid evaporation of a solution can be considered a non-equilibrium growth environment, one in which a supersaturated thin film is produced and which can result in the formation of metastable supramolecular structures. Our research program seeks to manipulate the frequency and nature of the metastable structures produced in this process by varying the chemical functional groups on a porphyrin ring (and thus intermolecular interactions), the solid substrate (and thus molecule-substrate interactions), and the deposition conditions (varying the rpm and solvent during spin coating deposition). This research is achieved by imaging molecule-decorated surfaces with scanning tunneling microscopy to locally probe the supramolecular structures produced under a given deposition condition. Structural models are then confirmed using electronic structure theory and then applied to understand how the combination of intermolecular forces, molecule-substrate interactions, and conditions in the evaporating solvent influence spontaneous assembly behavior.