A collaboration between the ESiM partners TU Dresden and IPF Dresden has identified a new class of vertical oriented molecular rotors for applications in energy storage.

The work is published in ACS Nano: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsnano.5c17283

For the development of single-molecule machines on surfaces able to store energy, a vertical molecular geometry based on a simple, common platform and on variable functional ligands is a promising design approach. This could allow to decouple the active unit from the supporting surface and to obtain a flexible modular system.

Scientists of TU Dresden, TU Hamburg-Harburg, and IPF Dresden have functionalized subphthalocyanine with a series of vertical axial ligands of varying conjugation lengths and studied their adsorption on the Au(111) surface by low-temperature STM supported by simulations. They found that increasing the conjugation length of the axial ligand induces a distinct transition in the adsorption geometry.

The article sets the bases for the development of a modular and flexible platform for vertical rotors on surface with applications in energy storage and offers a rational strategy to control the orientation and packing of the rotors through the design of the axial ligands.