A self-assembly reaction, in which extended structures grow parallel to a surface is found based on isocyanide-containing molecules, in particular, with 1,4-phenylene diisocyanide (PDI), which forms long, one-dimensional oligomeric chains when adsorbed on the Au(111) surface.  It is found that the isocyanide functionality binds strongly enough to gold that it can extract gold atoms from low-coordination sites on a Au(111) surface to form extended, one-dimensional oligomeric Au-PDI structures.  The p-conjugation is maintained throughout the oligomeric species and that they are reasonably mobile.  The self-assembly pathway is explored using density functional theory calculations to estimate the energetics of the self-assembly reaction.  It is found that a PDI-Au adatom complex is the precursor to oligomer formation and propagates by attaching to the end of a PDI-terminated chain.  It is found that analogous chemistry can, in some cases, occur with thiol-functionalized analogs of PDI and two-dimensional metal organic framework structures can be synthesized using 1,3,5-triisocyanobenzene.

Chemical self-assembly strategies for metal-organic surface structures

247th National Meeting (2014)

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