On-surface construction of a metal–organic Sierpiński triangle

Abstract

Through a careful design of the molecular precursor we have successfully constructed the metal-organic Sierpiński triangles on Au(111) via on-surface coordination chemistry, which is demonstrated by the interplay of high-resolution STM imaging and DFT calculations. The coordination Sierpiński triangles show high stabilities as evidenced by room temperature STM imaging, and could withstand a thermal treatment up to 450 K.