1997
DOI: 10.1021/la960777z
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Mechanism of Formation of Au Vacancy Islands in Alkanethiol Monolayers on Au(111)

Abstract: Using an ultrahigh-vacuum scanning tunneling microscope we have discovered evidence for a novel mechanism by which Au vacancy islands form during assembly of alkanethiol monolayers on Au(111). Our results suggest a model whereby excess Au atoms are forced out of the surface layer by relaxation of the compressed herringbone reconstruction. This creates adatoms on, and vacancies in, the surface layer. On large terraces the vacancies nucleate into islands while the adatoms migrate and adsorb at ascending step edg… Show more

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Cited by 330 publications
(400 citation statements)
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“…Results presented here for sputtered Au on Cr show remarkable similarity to the 'etch pits' observed in Refs. [19,32] At this point it is instructive to outline the detail of conformational isomers which describe the structure of the alkanethiol molecular chain. In acyclical structures, such as 1-nonanethiol, rotation about a single bond can produce an infinite number of arrangements.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…Results presented here for sputtered Au on Cr show remarkable similarity to the 'etch pits' observed in Refs. [19,32] At this point it is instructive to outline the detail of conformational isomers which describe the structure of the alkanethiol molecular chain. In acyclical structures, such as 1-nonanethiol, rotation about a single bond can produce an infinite number of arrangements.…”
Section: Resultsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…The structure of the alkanethiols was not examined in detail, nor was the effect of higher grain boundary densities on the molecular package arrangement of the SAM on the surface. The long range order of alkanethiol self assembly was addressed in early STM studies [19][20][21][22][23][24][25] revealing that alkanethiol monolayers on Au{111}, in particular, exhibit a distribution of pit-like defects which are known not to exist on the Au surface. Although initially believed that the pits arose from missing or loosely packed alkanethiols [20][21][22], later studies revealed that they were in fact two-dimensional islands of Au vacancies [26] consistent with the Au{111} single-atom step height of 0.24 nm.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…These events are mutually dependent, which is similar to UHV-STM observations of the alkanethiol SAMs. However, white nano protrusions often found during alkanethiol SAM formation in UHV 109 are not observed by in situ STM. This suggests a different formation mechanism in the liquid environment.…”
Section: This Journal Is C the Owner Societies 2011mentioning
confidence: 86%
“…Both the formation dynamics including several intermediate phases and the steady-state SAM structures have been characterized by UHV-STM. [107][108][109][110][111] The advantages of such studies are to offer a fundamental understanding of the formation mechanism as well as the detailed surface structures of the SAMs. However, a broad range of SAMs have been prepared more practically using wet methods.…”
Section: Assembly Environmentsmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Such depressions are also characteristic of formation of both thiol-1 and selenol- 16 based SAMs on Au(111), and likely result mainly from lifting the Au(111) herringbone reconstruction upon chemisorption of these molecules. 17 Detection of similar features for alkynes suggests formation of densely packed chemisorbed structures on Au(111).…”
mentioning
confidence: 99%