The key aspect of molecular engineering towards functional low dimensional nanomaterial is the controlled construction of well-ordered molecular nanostructure, in terms of shapes, size, composition, symmetry, chirality, etc.. In principle, the molecular nanostructure can be classified into two categories according to the interactions between molecules: (1) structures formed by week non-covalent interactions like hydrogen bond, halogen bond, van der Waals interactions, coordinations; (2) structures formed by covalent bonds. The formation of these two types of nanostructure on the surface involves processes of molecular self-assembling and surface reaction, respectively.
   A particular focus in our group is the building of new molecular self-assembly structure which posses novel electrical or catalytic properties. The comprehensive utilization of halogen bonding, hydrogen bonding, coordination and other weak interactions enables the construction of fractal, hierarchical, chiral, and nano-pored structures on the surface.

   Another focus is on the utilization of self-assembly strategy to mediate the regioselectivity, site-selectivity, reaction pathway of surface reactions. We are interested in the basic scientific question about how self-assembly would affect the reactivity of individual molecule, the electronic property of the substrate, and the construction of novel covalent nanostructure.