We focus on the formation of self-assembled molecular networks at the liquid-solid interface on small areas on covalently functionalized graphite and graphene surfaces, leading to confinement effects. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), at the liquid-solid interface, is not only used as imaging and characterization tool, but STM plays in some cases also an active role in defining the confinement. Several strategies are demonstrated to realize this confinement, and they all rely on functionalization of the surface by covalently grating molecules, that act as surface “defects”, and/or that confine the self-assembly process to areas of well-defined size or shape. In a first approach, the 2D carbon surface is grafted with a controlled density of grafted molecules. In a second approach, “nanocontainers” of pristine graphite or graphene are created using a scanning probe microscopy nanolithography approach, removing locally the grafted molecules creating nanocorrals of well-defined shape and size. In a final strategy, using a bottom-up approach, covalent functionalization leads to nanostructured 2D carbon surfaces, with pristine graphite of graphene islands of which the diameter can be tuned between a few tens or a few hundreds of nanometer.<br/>The impact of these various types of confinement on the formation of self-assembled molecular networks at the liquid-solid interface will be discussed.

Impact of passively and actively confining self-assembled molecular networks in 2D corrals

2019 Fall National Meeting

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