Engineering two-dimensional hybrid NaCl-organic coordinated nanoarchitectures on metal surfaces

We selectively engineer three two-dimensional self-assembled hybrid PTCDI-NaCl nanoarchitectures, i.e. a flower-structure, a mesh-structure and a chain-structure on Au(111). Scanning tunneling microscopy reveals that NaCl-dimers selectively interact with molecular N-H groups. The PTCDI···NaCl-dimer binding appears to be highly directional. Hybrid molecular-ionic self-assembly is a promising alternative to metal-coordinated and multicomponent organic nanostructures to engineer novel nanoarchitectures on surfaces.