Constructing surface mounted molecular rotors

COLL 110

Tao Ye1, Tomohide Takami2, James M. Tour3, Ken ichi Sugiura4, and Paul S. Weiss1. (1) Department of Chemistry, The Pennsylvania State University, 152 Davey Lab, State College, PA 16801, (2) Visionarts Research, Inc, 104 Davey Laboratory, University Park, PA 16802, (3) Department of Chemistry, Rice University, (4) Department of Chemistry, Tokyo Metropolitan University
We attempt to assemble surface mounted molecular rotors through a shaft-fan design. In a host alkanethiol self-assembled monolayer matrix, a shaft, a pyridine terminated oligo phenylene ethylene thiol is inserted. The fan of the rotor assembly, a metal porphyrin, is attached to the shaft via axial ligation with the pyridine terminal. These supramolecular structures are characterized by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). We perform a systematic investigation on parameters such as the chain length of the alkanethiol matrix and the meter center of the porphyrins. We will discuss the STM contrast mechanism of these structures.