On-surface synthesis and spontaneous segregation of conjugated tetraphenylethylene macrocycles

Abstract

On-surface synthesis is a useful tool to produce extended macrocyclic structures with atomic precision, with only one type of macrocycle typically formed through on-surface coupling reactions. Here, distinct domains of four-, six- and eight-membered tetraphenylethylene-based macrocycles are synthesized on Ag(111) as segregated large-area mono-component crystals.