Locking the free-rotation of a prochiral star-shaped guest molecule inside a two-dimensional nanoporous network by introduction of chlorine atomsElectronic supplementary information (ESI) available: Additional STM images and models. See DOI: 10.1039/c1cc12951aThis article is part of the ChemComm‘Molecule-based surface chemistry’ web themed issue.

Two star-shaped triazatrinaphthylene (TrisK) derivatives form highly-organized nanoporous honeycomb networks when adsorbed at the n-tetradecane/HOPG interface. STM reveals that replacing three H-atoms by three Cl-atoms in the chemical structure of the TrisK skeleton results in locking the free-rotation of the guest molecules inside the pore of the host network as a result of symmetry breaking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]