Directing On-Surface Reaction Pathways via Metal-Organic Cu-N Coordination.

We demonstrate an enhancement of cyclization against polymerization for the on-surface debrominative coupling reaction, by using the metal-organic Cu-N coordination template to direct the reaction pathways. Experiments performed by using ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscopy (UHV-STM), with the substitution of metal-coordination centers, metallic substrates and functional organic ligands, corroborate the template effect of the Cu-N coordination.