A combination
of cyclic voltammetry, in situ electrochemical scanning
tunneling microscopy (EC-STM), and ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(XPS) studies was employed to investigate the electrochemical behavior
and to characterize the structure of adsorbed layers of a redox-active
pyridine-appended zinc phthalocyanine (ZnPc) at Cu(100)/electrolyte
interfaces. Additional cyclic voltammograms (CVs) of a HOPG electrode
in phthalocyanine- and iodide-containing electrolyte showed four redox
peak pairs related to the phthalocyanine macrocycle. Focusing on the reduction processes, the four observed cathodic waves were
assigned to four single electron transfer steps causing four successive
reductions of the phthalocyanine. Due to its narrow potential window,
the CV of Cu(100) in the same electrolyte covers only the first three
reduction features in the acidic solution superimposed by the CuI
formation/dissolution processes. Surprisingly, the XPS data from the
iodide and phthalocyanine covered Cu(100) surface, however, revealed
a demetalation of the molecules, that is, a replacement of the central
zinc atom of adsorbed ZnPc
+
by hydrogen atoms resulting in the formation of the corresponding
free base phthalocyanine H2Pc+. These H2Pc+ molecules
form highly ordered adlayers on the iodide-modified Cu(100) surface
with the coexistence of different phases, that is, one with a square-shaped
unit cell enclosing an angle of (91 ± 2)° and a rhombic
one with an angle of (66 ± 2)°, and intermolecular distances
of 2.0 ± 0.1 nm and 2.3 ± 0.1 nm, respectively. The main
symmetry axes of the H2Pc+ adlayer run parallel neither
to the commensurate direction of the iodide layer underneath nor to
the close-packed atomic rows of the copper substrate. Detailed molecular
models are proposed which are in agreement with the patterns experimentally
observed with EC-STM.