On-Surface Synthesis of Ligands to Elaborate Coordination Polymers on an Au(111) Surface

On-surface metal-organic polymers have emerged as a class of promising 2D materials. Here, we propose a new strategy to obtain coordination polymers by transforming supramolecular networks into coordination polymers by surface-assisted cyclo-dehydrogenation of organic building blocks. All nanostructures are fully characterized by using scanning tunneling microscopy under ultra-high vacuum on a gold surface. We demonstrated that the balance between molecule-molecule interaction and molecule-substrate interaction can be drastically modified by a strong modification of the geometry of the molecules thanks to a thermal annealing. This new way is an efficient method to elaborate on-surface coordination polymers.

Automated summary

A new strategy to obtain coordination polymers by transforming supramolecular networks into coordination polymers through surface-assisted cyclo-dehydrogenation of organic building blocks is proposed. All nanostructures were fully characterized using scanning tunneling microscopy under ultra-high vacuum on a gold surface. The balance between molecule-molecule interaction and molecule-substrate interaction can be drastically modified by a strong modification of the geometry of the molecules through thermal annealing, demonstrating an efficient method to elaborate on-surface coordination polymers.