Judicaël Jeannoutot

Noncovalent bicomponent self-assemblies on a silicon surface.

Two-dimensional supramolecular multicomponent networks on surfaces are of major interest for the building of highly ordered functional materials with nanometer-sized features especially designed for applications in nanoelectronics, energy storage, sensors, etc. If such molecular edifices have been previously built on noble metals or HOPG surfaces, we have successfully realized a 2D open supramolecular framework on a silicon adatom-based surface under ultrahigh vacuum with thermal stability up to 400 K by combining molecule-molecule and molecule-silicon substrate interactions. One of these robust open networks was further used to control both the growth and the periodicity of the first bicomponent arrays without forming any covalent bond with a silicon surface. Our strategy allows the formation of a well-controlled long-range periodic array of single fullerenes by site-specificity inclusion into a bicomponent supramolecular network.

Seeding molecular rotators on a passivated silicon surface.

Thermally activated rotation of single molecules adsorbed on a silicon-based surface between 77 and 150 K has been successfully achieved. This remarkable phenomenon relies on a nanoporous supramolecular network, which acts as a template to seed periodic molecule rotors on the surface. Thermal activation of rotation has been demonstrated by STM experiments and confirmed by theoretical calculations.