Long-Range Ordered Structures of Corannulene Governed by Electrostatic Repulsion and Surface-State Mediation.

The adsorption and assembly of sub-monolayered bowl-shaped corannulene (COR) on Cu(1 1 1) and Ag(1 1 1) are investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). Three COR configurations, namely, up, down, and tilted ones, are formed on Cu(1 1 1), as unraveled by high-resolution STM images. It is also experimentally revealed that monodispersed, hexagonal, and evenly spaced stripe patterns develop on both Cu(1 1 1) and Ag(1 1 1). A quantitative evaluation of the long-range intermolecular interaction on Cu(111) mediated by electrostatic repulsion and surface-state mediation is presented. At 0.05 monolayer (ML), the long-range monodispersed pattern is mainly induced by electrostatic interaction. At 0.24 and 0.47 ML, however, surface-state mediation plays a dominant role, and the electrostatic interaction is leveled due to the identical static environment for each molecule.