One of the most extended approaches in order to growth metal-organic nanostructures on surfaces consists in recombine small organic molecules with a carefully controlled quantity of metallic atoms on a surface. As an example, our group followed this strategy in previous works for obtaining a rich variety of nanostructures by combining PTCDA molecules with Fe atoms on Au(111). On the contrary, in this work we explored a different approach. We directly sublimated under UHV conditions a large metal-organic cluster [Cu4(m3-Cl)4(m-pym2S2)4](pym2S2 = dipyrimidinedisulfide) which spontaneously self-organize on the Cu(110) surface. We showed that the Cu4Cl4 metallic core maintains its molecular integrity during the process. Furthermore, the obtained structures are laterally stabilized by a p-p intermolecular interaction. The methodology described in this work opens the door for the synthesis of new (multi-)functional nanostructures based on large metal-organic precursors.
It has been published in the journal Chem. Commun. 51, 3243-3246 (2015)