Single polyoxometalate-based nanoclusters characterized by infrared absorption nanospectroscopy.

Bottom-up engineering is a very attractive field. However, the periodic organization of molecules on a solid substrate is challenging, particularly in the selection of the appropriate characterization technique which is suitable for both large area and accurate analysis at the nanoscale. Here, this study demonstrates the unambiguous identification of complex molecular layers by infrared absorption microscopy at the nanometric scale.

Ready-to-be-addressed oxo-clusters: individualized, periodically organized and separated from the substrate.

Clusters and oxo-clusters are drawing attention for their amazing physical properties, especially at the scale of the single molecule. However, chemical methods to organize them individually on a surface are still lacking. In this study we show that it is possible to periodically organize individual polyoxometalates thanks to their ordering by a new supramolecular assembly.