The formation of a gap state in the substrate for CoPcF16/MoS2 can cause local interfacial charge transfer and also hybridization in the context of FCT. To study if the central atom (Co) of the phthalocyanines is involved in such an interaction, we perform X-ray absorption (XAS) experiments at the Co-L3 edge and XPS measurements of the Co2p5/2 region, presented in Figure . Metal L-edge spectra of TMPcs are in particular sensitive to changes of the configuration of d-electrons. In the case of an occupation or hybridisation of particular orbitals, excitation cannels can be blocked, as shown for CoPc on Ni and grapene/Ni. The XAS results for mono-and multilayer deposition of CoPc are displayed in Figure , while the corresponding results for CoPcF16 are shown in Figure . Most notably, there are no significant differences in the spectra for each molecule obtained after monolayer vs. multilayer deposition. This indicates that the observed induced gap state in Figure is not localized on the Co atom, as the peak shape and position would be expected to change otherwise. XPS experiments of the Co2p3/2 region after CoPc or CoPcF16 deposition (Figure and, repectively) support our hypothesis that the Co atom does not take part in charge transfer since there are no variations in the spectral shapes after monolayer vs. multilayer deposition.