Host-guest supramolecular chemistry at solid-liquid interface: An important strategy for preparing two-dimensional functional nanostructures

Supramolecular self-assembly, an important strategy in nanotechnology, has been widely studied in the past two decades. In this review, we have introduced the recent progress on construction of two-dimensional (2D) nanostructures by host-guest supramolecular chemistry at solid-liquid interface, and the interactions between the host assembly and the guest molecules are the major concerns. At first, the hydrogen bonds connected hybrid structures are discussed. And then we have paid a close attention on the surface-confined condensation reactions that has flourished recently in direct preparing novel nanostructures with increasing structural complexity. In the end, the cavity confinement of the 2D supramolecular host-guest architectures has been studied. On the basis of the above-mentioned interactions, a group of functional hybrid structures have been prepared. Notably, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), a unique technique to probe the surface morphology and information at the single molecule level, has been used to probe the formed structures on highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) surface.