Weak epitaxy growth and phase behavior of planar phthalocyanines on p-sexiphenyl monolayer film

We systematically investigated the weak epitaxy growth (WEG) behavior of a series of planar phthalocyanine compounds (MPc), i.e., metal-free phthalocyanine (H2Pc), nickel phthalocyanine (NiPc), copper phthalocyanine (CuPc), zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc), iron phthalocyanine (FePc), cobalt phthalocyanine (CoPc), grown on a p-sexiphenyl ( p-6P) monolayer film by selected area electron diffraction (SAED) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Two types of epitaxial relations, named as incommensurate epitaxy and commensurate epitaxy, were identified between phthalocyanine compounds and the substrate of the p-6P film. The tiny variation of the lattice constant of phthalocyanine compounds can result in different crystal orientations. The change rule of incommensurate and commensurate epitaxy was extracted. The tendency of commensurate epitaxy becomes weaker as the lattice constant b increases, while it gets stronger as the substrate temperature is elevated. Large size and continuous H2Pc films can be obtained by controlling the growth conditions. The WEG method is generally applicable in the whole family of planar phthalocyanine compounds and may be used to fabricate other high-quality organic films.