by Dr Manuela Mura

Centre for Materials Science Research Colloquium

Wednesday 20th of February 2013 at 13:00

Foster Building Lecture Theatre 3

Abstract: The phenomenon of self-assembly of atomic and molecular superstructures on crystal surfaces is attracting an increasing interest in nanotechnology. Self-organised nano-templates, where the self-assembled monolayer traps other molecules with selected functional properties, can be used to build large nanoscale structures. Self-assembled superstructures can form chiral domains ranging from 1D chains to 2D monolayers.

There have been many scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of self-assembly of melamine, perylene tetra-carboxylic di-imide (PTCDI) or perylene tetra-carboxylic di-anhydride (PTCDA) molecules on the Au(111) and Ag/Si(111) surfaces. STM images of these networks do not reveal the exact details of the intermolecular bonding and the network growth. Therefore theory can help to determine the exact atomic structure of these networks.

We present a theoretical study of self-assembly of molecular networks formed by…