Molecular platforms as versatile building blocks for multifunctional photoswitchable surfaces.

Controlled attachment of photoswitchable molecules to solid surfaces is a promising route for the realization of complex machine-like molecular functions. A central next step here is the preparation of adlayers with multiple chemical functions that have defined intermolecular spacings and orientations and interact with each other in a controlled way, resulting in novel advanced system properties. We demonstrate that this is possible using molecular platforms with vertical functional units. Employing molecular components with identical triazatriangulenium-based units, we prepared mixed adlayers of platforms carrying a stable photoswitch and bare platforms, platforms with vertical pyridine units, and platforms with metastable switches, respectively. All these mixed layers are highly hexagonally ordered, can be easily varied in composition, and exhibit a stochastic arrangement of the two molecular components.