Self-Assemblies of Carboxylic Acid Derivatives with Different Symmetry: Adjusting by Solvent and Guest Molecules

In this research, the self-assembly behaviors of two different symmetry carboxylic acid derivatives (H3BTE and H4BTE) regulated by solvent and guest molecule (coronene, COR) were explored at the liquid/solid interface by scanning tunneling microscopy, and the formation mechanism was investigated by density functional theory. In 1-phenyloctane, only H3BTE molecules dissolved with extremely low concentration and self-assembled into a honeycomb structure and a new strip structure, while H4BTE could not. In 1-heptanoic acid, H3BTE and H4BTE were easily dissolved, in which H3BTE formed a regular row structure and H4BTE formed a tetragonal structure, respectively. The host–guest interaction was investigated by introducing the COR molecules into their self-assembly structures, and due to the different symmetry, H3BTE and H4BTE displayed different accommodation behavior.