Fatema Mohamed , Manuel Corva , Erika Tomsič , Zhijing Feng , Tomáš Skála , Giovanni Comelli , Nicola Seriani , Erik Vesselli , Maria Peressi
{"title":"Excellent self-assembly properties of Iron Phthalocyanines on alumina for locally ordered single-atom catalysts","authors":"Fatema Mohamed , Manuel Corva , Erika Tomsič , Zhijing Feng , Tomáš Skála , Giovanni Comelli , Nicola Seriani , Erik Vesselli , Maria Peressi","doi":"10.1016/j.physo.2025.100259","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In a biomimetic approach, metal Phthalocyanines (Pcs) can be considered to efficiently model single atom catalysts (SACs), hosting catalytically active single metal atoms in their macrocyclic cages. An ordered 2D array of SACs can thus be obtained when metal Pcs are assembled in a regular framework. In this work we consider in particular Iron Pcs (FePcs) on an ultra-thin alumina film grown on the Ni<sub>3</sub>Al(111) surface. Intrinsic modulations in the potential energy surface related with the oxide film structure drive the self-assembly of FePc molecules into a regular array, with molecular vacancies forming a hexagonal Bravais lattice with the same periodicity of the substrate, i.e. with a lattice parameter of about 4 nm. The symmetry of the supramolecular structure is dictated by the template rather than by the C<sub>4v</sub> symmetry of the individual molecules, thus indicating prevalence of molecule-substrate interactions with respect to intermolecular forces. The same hexagonal periodicity extends also to the multilayer, which starts forming already before completion of the first, interfacial monolayer. The latter exhibits a local definite chirality, also propagating to the multilayer in a determined stacking sequence.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":36067,"journal":{"name":"Physics Open","volume":"23 ","pages":"Article 100259"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2025-02-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Physics Open","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666032625000092","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"Physics and Astronomy","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
In a biomimetic approach, metal Phthalocyanines (Pcs) can be considered to efficiently model single atom catalysts (SACs), hosting catalytically active single metal atoms in their macrocyclic cages. An ordered 2D array of SACs can thus be obtained when metal Pcs are assembled in a regular framework. In this work we consider in particular Iron Pcs (FePcs) on an ultra-thin alumina film grown on the Ni3Al(111) surface. Intrinsic modulations in the potential energy surface related with the oxide film structure drive the self-assembly of FePc molecules into a regular array, with molecular vacancies forming a hexagonal Bravais lattice with the same periodicity of the substrate, i.e. with a lattice parameter of about 4 nm. The symmetry of the supramolecular structure is dictated by the template rather than by the C4v symmetry of the individual molecules, thus indicating prevalence of molecule-substrate interactions with respect to intermolecular forces. The same hexagonal periodicity extends also to the multilayer, which starts forming already before completion of the first, interfacial monolayer. The latter exhibits a local definite chirality, also propagating to the multilayer in a determined stacking sequence.