Self-Assembly of Individually Addressable Complexes of C60 and Phthalocyanines on a Metal Surface: Structural and Electronic Investigations

The hosting properties of a close-packed layer of phenoxy-substituted phthalocyanine derivatives adsorbed on Ag(111) were investigated for the adsorption of C60 molecules. The C60 molecules bind to two clearly distinguishable sites, namely, to the underlying metal substrate in between two adjacent phthalocyanine derivatives, leading to structural and electronic properties analogous to those of C60 adsorbed on Ag(111), and to the core of the underlying phthalocyanine derivative, indicative of the formation of 1:1 donor−acceptor (D−A) dyads through a true host−guest interaction. The electronic properties have been determined by scanning tunneling spectroscopy measurements on individual D−A dyads.