Morales Rodriguez, Marissa E.

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    Scanning tunneling microscopy studies of Alkyl Thiols on real surfaces
    (2008) Morales Rodriguez, Marissa E.; Castro Rosario, Miguel E.; College of Arts and Sciences - Sciences; Irizarry, Roberto; Mina, Nairmen; Department of Chemistry; Goyal, Vijay K.
    The development of new materials has been the focus of the attention of researchers over the last decades. With the arrival of the new century, nanotechnology has played an important role in the creation or reinvention of materials. An extended part of this new way to look at science is the study of surfaces. Reaction at surfaces has been study extensively and had been employed in the industry as catalysts, fabrication of sensors, data storage, electronic devices and the study of pollution and corrosion behavior. A facile method to obtain a well define surface is the utilization of self assembled monolayers (SAMs) using thiol molecules deposited on a surface. These molecules are capable of self arrange over a surface forming well define lines. The following study presents the creation of 1-Decanethiol (C10H22SH) surfaces on three different substrates: (i) Stainless Steel, (ii) Highly Oriented Pyrolitic Graphite, (iii) and Silver. Characterization of each surface was performed using Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) before and after exposure with 1-Decanethiol solution, which is adsorbed from water by the substrate. Molecular resolution with the STM is achieved upon adsorption of the thiol molecule on the substrate surface. The easyScan nanosurf version 2 software allows measurement of molecule length that is consistent with 1-Decanethiol molecular length computer calculated with Gaussian View 03W. STM images of the topography of each surface demonstrate well define lines consistent with formation of S-S linkage across the surface, which emerge from S-H bond activation upon the interaction of the thiol with the surface. Under ambient conditions, used for this study, we found thiol molecules lying parallel on the substrate surface with a “zig-zag” characteristic of alternating methylene groups. The arrangement is nearly independent of the substrate surface employed for the measurements, indicating that the intermolecular interactions are as important as substrate surface-molecule interactions.