Formation of Au55 strands on a molecular template at the solid-liquid interface

We report on a procedure that leads to the formation of linearly arranged ligand stabilized Au-55 clusters. This approach utilizes the incorporation of chemically modified Au-55 nanoclusters into highly oriented molecular templates by substitution of individual molecules of the template. The required molecular templates are, for example, formed spontaneously at the solid-liquid interface of highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) and can be directly investigated by means of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at the solid-solution interface. The molecular templates are used to guide the incorporation of Au-55 clusters resulting in strands of linearly arranged nano-objects and represent self-organized nanostructures with a periodicity down to a few nanometers.