On-Surface Synthesis of Highly Ordered Covalent Sierpiński Triangle Fractals
Yiping Mo1,2, Ting Chen1, Jingxin Dai3
1CAS Key Laboratory of Molecular Nanostructure and Nanotechnology, CAS Research/Education Center for Excellence in Molecular Sciences, Beijing National Laboratory for Molecular Sciences (BNLMS), Institute of Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences , Beijing 100190 , China.
Abstract:
The Sierpiński triangle (ST) is a well-known fractal structure. Synthesis of stable molecular STs with robust covalent linkages is attractive but challenging. Here, we demonstrate the formation of a series of high-quality covalent STs via the on-surface dehydration reaction of 1,3-benzenediboronic acid with the presence of water as an equilibrium regulator at ambient atmosphere. Extended molecular fractals up to third generation are obtained, as disclosed by scanning tunnel microscope. The covalent STs show intriguing bright and dark contrasts irrespective of the fractal generations, which is related with epitaxial relationship of fractal structure to the underlying graphite lattice, as supported by theoretical simulations.
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