Langmuir, Vol.31, No.49, 13420-13425, 2015
S-Shaped Conformation of the Quaterthiophene Molecular Backbone in Two-Dimensional Bisterpyridine-Derivative Self-Assembled Nanoarchitecture
The conformation and the two-dimensional self-assembly of 4'-(3',4 ''-dihexyloxy-5,2':5',2 '':5 '',2'''-quaterthien-2,5'''-diyl)-bis(2,2':6',2 ''-terpyridine) molecules are theoretically and experimentally investigated. This molecular building block forms a hydrogen-bonded chiral supramolecular nanoarchitecture on graphite at the solid/liquid interface. Scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) shows that the molecule adopts an S-shaped conformation in this structure. DFTB+ calculations reveal that this conformation is not the lowest-energy conformation. The molecular nanoarchitecture appears to be stabilized by hydrogen bonding as well as van der Waals interactions. I-, L-, and fl-shaped molecular conformations are, however, locally observed at the domain boundary, but these conformations do not self-assemble into organized 2D structures.