We investigate an anthracene derivative, 3(5)-(9-anthryl) pyrazole (ANP), self-assembled on the Au (111) surface by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and density functional theory (DFT) calculations. A chessboard-like network structure composed of ANP molecules is found, covering the whole Au (111) substrate. Our STM results and DFT calculations reveal that the formation of chessboard-like networks originates from a basic unit cell, a tetramer structure, which is formed by four ANP molecules connected through C-H-N hydrogen-bonds. The hydrogen bonds inside each tetramer and the molecular adsorption interaction are fundamentally important in providing a driving force for formation of the supramolecular networks.
@article{arxiv.1306.6718,
title = {Building the Chessboard-like Supramolecular Structure on Au (111) Surfaces},
author = {Ruifen Dou and Yu Yang and Ping Zhang and Dingyong Zhong and Harald Fuchs and Yue Wang and Lifeng Chi},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1306.6718},
year = {2013}
}