Tunable linear nanopatterns of disubstituted alkane derivatives containing bi-components via selective hydrogen bonding

Supramolecular self-assembly on surfaces offers attractive features, which are usually tuned through the choice of the chain-length-varying molecular building blocks and stabilized by hydrogen bonding. Here the linear nanopatterns of bi-component building blocks between 1,18-octadecanedionic acid (HOOC(CH2)18COOH) and 4,4′-bipyridine (BPy), 1-hydroxyhexadecanoic acid (HO(CH2)15COOH) and BPy on highly ordered pyrolytic graphite are presented. By merely changing terminal groups, we reveal by using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) that it is rational to steer the periodicity of the linearly patterned nanostructures with nanometer precision over an extended length scale. Different surface nanopatterns on graphite surface are created by tuning different disubstituted terminal groups and the ratio of them to their complementary recognizing molecules. The STM observations are supported by the reference nanostructure of bi-component 1,16-hexadecandiol (HO(CH2)16OH) and BPy.