Halogen bonds as stabilizing interactions in a chiral self-assembled molecular monolayer.

We report the formation of highly-ordered self-assembled monolayers of an achiral organic semiconductor molecule. STM results show spontaneous formation of very large single domains of ordered chiral monolayers. DFT calculations support the identification of halogen bonds as the primary interactions that steer molecular self-assembly, leading to organizational chirality. This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry 2011