Collaborative Research: The Role of the Substrate Surface State and Molecular Configuration in Porous Honeycomb Networks of Quinones

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The Analytical & Surface Chemistry Program of the Division of Chemistry, in the Directorate of Mathematical & Physical Sciences of the National Science Foundation, will support research by Theodore L. Einstein of the University of Maryland, College Park and Ludwig Bartels of the University of California, Riverside. The goal of this work is to understand how particular organic molecules assemble into large regular honeycomb patterns with open pores having diameters of 5 nm. To explore how general this behavior is, Bartels will perform experiments on different molecules and substrate materials in conjunction with theoretical calculations by Einstein that seek to explain the short-range structure in terms of hydrogen bonds and the large pores in terms of the electronic structure of the substrate. With a command of the interaction mechanisms, Bartels and Einstein will seek to engineer the size of open pores and perhaps also the pattern of the molecular networks. Such surfaces can serve as templates for growing patterned films on surfaces for applications ranging from storage technology to heterogeneous catalysis. Educational benefits include the training of graduate students and postdoctoral associates in state-of-the-art techniques for imaging at the atomic scale and for simulating systems in which comparatively small energies and subtle effects determine the overall geometry. It is also an outstanding opportunity for synergistic and close collaboration between physics-based theory and chemistry-based experiment, offering the involved students highly interdisciplinary training.