Regensburg 2007 – scientific programme
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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik
O 39: Nanostructures at Surfaces IV (Dots, Particles, Clusters, Arrays)
O 39.6: Talk
Wednesday, March 28, 2007, 17:00–17:15, H36
An Addressable Supramolecular Rotary Switch Featuring Distinguishable Positions Embedded In A Two-Dimensional Porphyrin-Based Porous Network — •Nikolai Wintjes1, Hannes Spillmann1, Andreas Kiebele1, Meike Stöhr1, Thomas Jung2, Davide Bonifazi3, Fuyong Cheng3, and François Diederich3 — 1Department of Physics, University of Basel, CH-4056 Basel — 2Paul Scherrer Institute, CH-5232 Villigen PSI — 3Laboratory for Organic Chemistry, ETH-Zürich, CH-8093 Zürich
In recent years, the attempts to build artificial functional devices from single molecules by the "bottom-up" approach were strongly in the focus of surface nanoscience. First experiments with molecules manually arranged by the STM tip gave first hints on the powerful possibilities of such a device. Nevertheless, a simple way to produce supramolecular devices parallel in vast amounts has never been shown before.
Herein we report on a highly complex supramolecular device that reminds of a mechanical rotary switch fabricated on a Cu(111) surface following the "bottom-up" approach. Self-assembly of a specially designed porphyrin molecule leads to the formation of porous networks featuring chiral cavities which serve as molecular stators for multi-state molecular rotors. These can rotate between six stable positions of which three are distinguishable using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) (see figure 1). The rotation can be induced either thermally or by the STM tip. The energy barrier for rotation was estimated to be 0.28 eV.