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Guided Molecular Assembly on a Locally Reactive 2D Material
Author(s) -
Warner Ben,
Gill Tobias G.,
Caciuc Vasile,
Atodiresei Nicolae,
Fleurence Antoine,
Yoshida Yasuo,
Hasegawa Yukio,
Blügel Stefan,
YamadaTakamura Yukiko,
Hirjibehedin Cyrus F.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201703929
Subject(s) - materials science , scanning tunneling microscope , dangling bond , density functional theory , molecule , silicene , chemical physics , nanotechnology , phthalocyanine , spintronics , chemisorption , crystallography , silicon , computational chemistry , condensed matter physics , adsorption , graphene , chemistry , optoelectronics , organic chemistry , physics , ferromagnetism
Atomically precise engineering of the position of molecular adsorbates on surfaces of 2D materials is key to their development in applications ranging from catalysis to single‐molecule spintronics. Here, stable room‐temperature templating of individual molecules with localized electronic states on the surface of a locally reactive 2D material, silicene grown on ZrB 2 , is demonstrated. Using a combination of scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory, it is shown that the binding of iron phthalocyanine (FePc) molecules is mediated via the strong chemisorption of the central Fe atom to the sp 3 ‐like dangling bond of Si atoms in the linear silicene domain boundaries. Since the planar Pc ligand couples to the Fe atom mostly through the in‐plane d orbitals, localized electronic states resembling those of the free molecule can be resolved. Furthermore, rotation of the molecule is restrained because of charge rearrangement induced by the bonding. These results highlight how nanoscale changes can induce reactivity in 2D materials, which can provide unique surface interactions for enabling novel forms of guided molecular assembly.