Chiral molecular patterns of self-assembled ion pairs composed of (R,S), (S)-16-methyloctadecanoic acid and 4,4′-bipyridine

Abstract

Self-assembled monolayers of stearic acid, (R,S) and (S)-16-methyloctadecanoic acid ion-paired with 4,4′-bipyridine have been observed on a solution–graphite interface by a scanning tunneling microscope (STM) and the observed macro-scale molecular patterns have been interpreted in terms of absolute chirality of the constituent molecule.