Structural investigation of Au(111)/butylthiolate adsorption phases

DOI: 10.1039/b921281g

Authors: A. Chaudhuri (University of Warwick) , D. C. Jackson (University of Warwick) , T. J. Lerotholi (University of Warwick) , R. G. Jones (University of Nottingham) , T.-l. Lee (Diamond Light Source) , B. Detlefs (ESRF) , D. P. Woodruff (University of Warwick)
Co-authored by industrial partner: No

Type: Journal Paper
Journal: Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics , VOL 12 (13) , PAGES 3229-3238

State: Published (Approved)
Published: January 2010

Abstract: The structures of the high-coverage ('standing-up') and low-coverage ('ying-down') phases of butylthiolate on Au(111) have been investigated by a range of experimental methods. Normal incidence X-ray standing waves, photoelectron diffraction and near-edge X-ray absorption. ne structure results all identify the local S headgroup site as atop a surface Au atom in a bulk continuation site for both high-and low-coverage phases. Low energy electron diffraction shows the low-coverage phase to have a (12 x root 3) rect. surface mesh with glide-line symmetry (pmg space group), the long dimension of this mesh being approximately four times the length of the butylthiolate molecule. A structural model is proposed for this phase based on two different enantiomers of an Au-adatom-dithiolate species that is consistent with these results and with recent finding for propylthiolate on this surface using low-temperature scanning tunnelling microscopy (O. Voznyy, J. J. Dubowski, J. T. Yates Jr. and P. Maksymovych, J. Am Chem. Soc., 2009, 131, 12989).

Subject Areas: Physics, Chemistry


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