Abstract
Molecular rotors with an off-center axis and the chiral feature of achiral CuPc molecules on a semi-metallic Bi(111) surface have been investigated by means of a scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at liquid nitrogen (LN2) temperature. The rotation axis of each CuPc molecular rotor is located at the end of a phthalocyanine group. As molecular coverage increases, the CuPc molecules are self-assembled into various nanoclusters and finally into two-dimensional (2D) domains, in which each CuPc molecule exhibits an apparent chiral feature. Such chiral features of the CuPc molecules can be attributed to the combined effect of asymmetric charge transfer between the CuPc and Bi(111) substrate, and the intermolecular van der Waals interactions.
Highlights
As an archetype molecule with organic semiconducting properties in the bulk, transition-metal phthalocyanines (TMPc) have attracted considerable interest due to their potential applications in organic electronic devices in the past few years [1,2,3]
We present the off-center rotation of a single CuPc molecule on the Bi(111) surface domains, the achiral CuPc molecules reveal a chiral feature such that the four phthalocyanines lobes at LN2 temperature, indicating the weak molecule-semimetal interaction
A small amount of CuPc molecules about 0.03 monolayer (ML) were deposited onto the shape with four perpendicular lobes and a dark hole located at the molecular center, Bi(111) surface at room temperature (RT)
Summary
As an archetype molecule with organic semiconducting properties in the bulk, transition-metal phthalocyanines (TMPc) have attracted considerable interest due to their potential applications in organic electronic devices in the past few years [1,2,3]. The chirality of self-assembled structures of the achiral TMPc molecules deposited on solid surfaces has been a hot topic in recent years [11,12,13,14,15,16]. Surface, where molecule–substrate interactions are weaker than those for metallic substrates while the charging events of TMPc molecules would be avoided. We present the off-center rotation of a single CuPc molecule on the Bi(111) surface domains, the achiral CuPc molecules reveal a chiral feature such that the four phthalocyanines lobes at LN2 temperature, indicating the weak molecule-semimetal interaction. CuPc molecules and substrate and the intermolecular regime to standing up in multilayer regime—occurred due to the enhanced intermolecular interactions van der Waals (vdW). A small amount of CuPc molecules about 0.03 monolayer (ML) were deposited onto the
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