THE ROLE OF COMPETITION EFFECT IN THE SELF-ASSEMBLY STRUCTURE OF 3,5-DIPHENYLBENZOIC ACID AND 2,2′:6′,2″-TERPYRIDINE-4′-CARBOXYLIC ACID ON Ag(110)

Abstract

The self-assembly structures of 2,2[Formula: see text]:6[Formula: see text],2[Formula: see text]-terpyridine-4[Formula: see text]-carboxylic acid (C[Formula: see text]H[Formula: see text]N3O2; [Formula: see text]) molecules and 3,5-diphenylbenzoic acid (C[Formula: see text]H[Formula: see text]O2; [Formula: see text]) molecules on Ag(110) surface have been investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and Density Functional Theory (DFT) calculation. The [Formula: see text] molecules form two different well-organized structures due to the [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] stacking and dipole–dipole interactions. When three C atoms of [Formula: see text] molecules are replaced by three N atoms to form [Formula: see text] molecules, the main driving force to form ordered assembly structures of [Formula: see text] molecule is changed to metal–organic coordination bond and hydrogen bond. The dramatic changes of main driving force between [Formula: see text]/Ag(110) and [Formula: see text]/Ag(110) system demonstrate that the N atoms are apt to form metal–organic coordination bond and hydrogen bond but dipole–dipole interactions and [Formula: see text]–[Formula: see text] stacking are relative to C atoms. These findings further reveal that the optimization design of organic molecules could vary the main driving force and then lead to the change of the molecular self-assembly structures.