Stress in Self-Assembled Monolayers:  ω-Biphenyl Alkane Thiols on Au(111)

Self-assembled monolayers of ω-(4‘-methylbiphenyl-4-yl) alkane thiols CH3(C6H4)2(CH2) n SH (BPn, n = 2, 3, and 5) on Au(111) substrates, prepared at room and elevated temperatures, were studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. In contrast to the biphenyl thiol analogues with n = 0 or 1, ordered...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The journal of physical chemistry. B 2005-06, Vol.109 (21), p.10902-10908
Main Authors: Cyganik, Piotr, Buck, Manfred, Wilton-Ely, James D. E. T, Wöll, Christof
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Self-assembled monolayers of ω-(4‘-methylbiphenyl-4-yl) alkane thiols CH3(C6H4)2(CH2) n SH (BPn, n = 2, 3, and 5) on Au(111) substrates, prepared at room and elevated temperatures, were studied using scanning tunneling microscopy. In contrast to the biphenyl thiol analogues with n = 0 or 1, ordered domains of large size are formed which exhibit small, periodic height variations on a length scale of several nanometers. These are attributed to solitons (or domain walls), resulting from structural mismatch between the molecular adlayer and the gold substrate. The implications of these results for the design of aromatic thiols to cope with stress and yield low-defect density self-assembled monolayers are discussed.
ISSN:1520-6106
1520-5207
DOI:10.1021/jp051378s