This paper investigates the influence of the interface between a gold or silver metal electrode and an n-alkyl SAM (supported on that electrode) on the rate of charge transport across junctions with structure Met(Au or Ag) TS /A(CH 2 ) n H//Ga 2 O 3 /EGaIn by comparing measurements of current density, J(V), for Met/AR = Au/thiolate (Au/SR), Ag/thiolate (Ag/SR), Ag/carboxylate (Ag/O 2 CR),and Au/acetylene (Au/CtCR), where R is an n-alkyl group. Values of J 0 and β (from the Simmons equation) were indistinguishable for these four interfaces. Since the anchoring groups, A, have large differences in their physical and electronic properties, the observation that they are indistinguishable in their influence on the injection current, J 0 (V = 0.5) indicates that these four Met/A interfaces do not contribute to the shape of the tunneling barrier in a way that influences J(V).

This paper describes charge transport by tunneling across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiolterminated derivatives of oligo(ethylene glycol) (HS(CH 2 CH 2 O) n CH 3 ; HS(EG) n CH 3 ); these SAMs are positioned between gold bottom electrodes and Ga 2 O 3 /EGaIn top electrodes and are of the form: SAMs of oligo(ethylene glycol)s using interactions among the high-energy, occupied orbitals associated with the lone-pair electrons on oxygen. According to calculations using density functional theory (DFT), these orbitals-localized orbitals predominately on the backbone oxygen atoms-are lower in energy (E MO = -6.8--7.2 eV), but more delocalized (due to interactions between orbitals on neighboring oxygen atoms), than the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO, E MO : ~-5.7 eV) localized on sulfur. Nonetheless, the existence of these high-energy, delocalized occupied orbitals, which are not present in analogous n-alkanethiols (E MO < -8.5 eV for orbitals associated with CH 2 ), rationalize the low value of β. SAMs of oligo(ethylene glycol)s (and of oligomers of glycine). SAMs based on S(EG) n CH 3 are, in this mechanism, good conductors (by hole tunneling), but good insulators (by electron and/or hole drift conduction)-an unexpected observation that suggests SAMs derived from these or electronically similar molecules as a new class of electronic materials. A second but less probable mechanism for this unexpectedly low value of β for SAMs of S(EG) n CH 3 rests on the 3 possibility of disorder in the SAM, and a systematic discrepancy between different estimates of the thickness of these SAMs.4

This paper describes rates of charge tunneling across self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of compounds containing oligophenyl groups, supported on gold and silver, using Ga 2 O 3 /EGaIn as the top electrode. It compares the injection current, J 0 , and the attenuation constant, β, of the simplified Simmons equation, across oligophenyl groups (R = Ph n ; n = 1, 2, 3), with three different anchoring groups (thiol, HSR; methanethiol, HSCH 2 R; and acetylene, HC≡CR) that attach R to the template-stripped gold and silver substrates. The results demonstrate that the structure of the molecules between the anchoring group (-S-or -C≡C-) and the oligophenyl moiety significantly influences charge transport. SAMs of SPh n , and C≡CPh n on gold show similar values of β and log|J 0 | (β = 0.28 ± 0.03 Å -1 and log|J 0 | = 2.7 ± 0.1 for Au/SPh n ; β = 0.30 ± 0.02 Å -1 and log|J 0 | = 3.0 ± 0.1 for Au/C≡CPh n ). The introduction of a single intervening methylene (CH 2 ) group, between the anchoring sulfur atom and the aromatic units to generate SAMs of SCH 2 Ph n , increases β to ~0.6 Å -1 on both gold and silver substrates. (For nalkanethiolates on gold the corresponding values are β = 0.76 Å -1 and log|J 0 | = 4.2). As a generalization, based on this and other work, it seems that increasing the height of the tunneling barrier in the region of the interfaces increases β, and may decrease J 0 ; by contrast, it appears that lowering the height of the barrier at these interfaces has little influence on β or J 0 .

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), prepared by reaction of terminal n-alkynes (HC C(CH 2 ) n CH 3 , n = 5, 7, 9, and 11) with Au(111) at 60°Cwere characterized using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and contact angles of water. In contrast to previous spectroscopic studies of this type of SAMs, these combined microscopic and spectroscopic experiments confirm formation of highly ordered SAMs having packing densities and molecular chain orientations very similar to those of alkanethiolates on Au(111). Physical properties, hydrophobicity, high surface order, and packing density, also suggest that SAMs of alkynes are similar to SAMs of alkanethiols. The formation of high-quality SAMs from alkynes requires careful preparation and manipulation of reactants in an oxygen-free environment; trace quantities of O 2 lead to oxidized contaminants and disordered surface films. The oxidation process occurs during formation of the SAM by oxidation of the −CC− group (most likely catalyzed by the gold substrate in the presence of O 2 ).T hin organic films based on self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) 1 are ubiquitous in surface science. The reaction of organic thiols (RSH) with group Ib metals (Au and Ag) to generate SAMs with composition Au/AgSR is the reaction most commonly used to prepare SAMs, 1 although reactions that generate organosilanes on silicon 2 (SiR) and organic carboxylates on silver 3 (AgO 2 CR) have attractive properties, and a number of other precursors have been surveyed. There have also been scattered descriptions of SAMs formed on gold from solutions of alkynes 4 (HCC(CH 2 ) n CH 3 , n = 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, and 13), ethynylbenzene 5 (HCCC 6 H 5 ) or nalkylmercury(II) tosylates 6 (CH 3 (CH 2 ) n HgOTs, n = 4 and 18) on Au(111). Although the potential interest of SAMs having metal−CCR bonds is high, since they offer a new type of metal−organic bond, most of these studies have used preparations analogous to those employed with n-alkanethiols and have generated SAMs that do not seem to be highly ordered and, thus, are perhaps unsuitable for detailed studies of the physical chemistry of the surface. In particular, there are no procedures that describe the formation of SAMs that are highly ordered in two dimensionsa key requirement for high-quality surface science. The most recent analyses of n-alkyl-based SAMs on Au(111) indicate a "liquid-like" structure of the monolayer, 6 and XPS analyses of SAMs formed from alkynes 4,5 suggest that these SAMs are sensitive to oxidation at an undefined point in their formation; that is, oxidation occurs either during or after SAM formation (for example, by reaction of the AuCCR bond with O 2 ). Contact angle analyses of increasing lengths of alkynes (HCC(CH 2 ) n CH 3 , n = 5, 7, 9, and 11) also suggest 4 that the quality of these SAMs is lower than those based on n-alkanethiols.Although SAMs have enabled studies of wetting, 7,8 adhesion, 9,10 and charge transport 3,11−13 (...