Highly ordered thin molecular films, from monolayer to multilayer assemblies, promise considerable development for micro- and nanotechnology. In particular, the application of supramolecular chemistry to the direct assembling of functional layers at surfaces added a new and highly diverse class of materials to modern material science. Multicomponent arrays are attractive materials for applications such as nonlinear optical materials, enzyme sensors, solar energy storage devices, and molecular rectifiers in several fields as optics, biotechnology, photo- and electrochemistry.

The talk will describe a recently developed set of perylene and phthalocyanine derivatives from which one can build highly organized multilayered structures on metal oxide surfaces. The essential finding is the use of terpyridyl-crowned perylenemonoimides monoanhydrides as the anchoring substances. Another key point is a proper choice of bis(terpyridyl)perylenediimide or terpyridyl-phthalocyanine linkers. Combination of these two factors allows to assemble highly colored and stable multilayered molecular films by a simple and reproducible procedure. As a proof of concept it has been demonstrated that molecular arrays can be successfully used in solid state DSSC even at ambient conditions.

One can expect many other potential uses of the proposed multilayers. The tpy-perylene spacers of a fixed length make possible a localization of specific ions or chromophores at a controlled depth inside the layer. This would allow to create a gradient of redox potentials across the film and to achieve, e.g. upon photoexcitation, a charge shift into a certain distance and direction. High absorbance of the multilayered films might eliminate the need of using porous structures, while the possibility to cover easily large surfaces is a great advantage in practical applications.