Au adatoms in self-assembly of benzenethiol on the Au(111) surface

Peter Maksymovych, John T. Yates

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

115 Scopus citations

Abstract

Self-assembly of benzenethiol at low coverage on Au(111) was studied using low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy. Phenylthiolate species (PhS), formed by thermal dehydrogenation of the parent PhSH molecule, was found to self-assemble into surface-bonded complexes with gold adatoms. Each complex involves two PhS species and one gold adatom. The PhS species form either cis- or trans-geometry relative to each other. At a higher coverage, the complexes coalesce, most likely due to the formation of weak C-H⋯S hydrogen bonds facilitated by the spatial arrangement of the PhS groups. Our findings thus establish that the self-assembly of arenethiols on the Au(111) surface is driven by gold adatom chemistry, which has recently been found to be the key ingredient in the self-assembly of alkanethiols on gold.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)7518-7519
Number of pages2
JournalJournal of the American Chemical Society
Volume130
Issue number24
DOIs
StatePublished - Jun 18 2008

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