Surface-Confined Supramolecular Self-Assembly of Molecular Nanocranes for Chemically Lifting and Positioning C60above a Conducting Substrate

Abstract 2D supramolecular self‐assembly is a good way to form well‐defined nanostructures on various substrates. One of the current challenges is to extend this approach to 3D functional building blocks. Here, we address this issue by providing a strategy for the controlled lifting and positioning of functional units above a graphitic substrate. This is the first time that multistory cyclophane‐based 3D tectons incorporating C 60 units have been designed and synthesized. Molecular modelling provides a description of the 3D geometries and evidences the flexible character of the building blocks. Despite this later feature, the supramolecular self‐assembly of Janus tectons on HOPG yields well‐ordered adlayers incorporating C 60 arrays at well‐defined mean distances from the surface. As our approach is not limited to C 60 , the results reported here open‐up possibilities for applications where the topological and electronic interactions between the substrate and the functional unit are of prime importance.