Surface-mediated ordering of pristine Salen molecules on coinage metals

The adsorption and assembly of pristine Salen molecules have been investigated by low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) on Au(111), Ag(111) and Cu(111). High-resolution STM imaging reveals that the Salen molecules form three types of conformational isomers and several self-assembled unit structures on Au(111) and Ag(111). However, the morphology, proportional distribution and self-assembled structure of Salen on Cu(111) are different from those on Au(111) and Ag(111) because the Cu(111) substrate invokes a relatively stronger molecule-substrate interaction. This study demonstrates that the conformational changes of the pristine Salen molecule can be mediated by the underlying substrate lattice structure, leading to subsequent formation of self-assembled structures on the surface.

Automated summary

The adsorption and assembly of pristine Salen molecules were studied on Au(111), Ag(111) and Cu(111) substrates. The results showed that Salen molecules formed different self-assembled structures on different substrates due to varied molecule-substrate interactions. The study demonstrated that the underlying substrate lattice structure can mediate the conformational changes of the pristine Salen molecule, leading to the formation of self-assembled structures on the surface.