Premium
Use of Specific Functionalised Tips with STM: A New Identification Method of Ester Groups and Their Molecular Structure in Self‐Assembled Overlayers
Author(s) -
Volcke Cedric,
Simonis Priscilla,
Durant François,
Thiry Paul A.,
Lambin Philippe,
Culot Christine,
Humbert Christophe
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
chemistry – a european journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.687
H-Index - 242
eISSN - 1521-3765
pISSN - 0947-6539
DOI - 10.1002/chem.200401169
Subject(s) - scanning tunneling microscope , molecule , adsorption , graphite , wax , crystallography , chemistry , group (periodic table) , layer (electronics) , materials science , high resolution , nanotechnology , organic chemistry , remote sensing , geology
The influence of chemical modification of scanning tunnelling microscopy tips on image contrast is studied. This technique is applied to the identification of an ester functional group, hardly visible otherwise. Self‐assembled overlayers of wax esters [CH 3 ‐(CH 2 ) 14 ‐CO‐O‐(CH 2 ) 15 ‐CH 3 ], adsorbed at the interface between highly oriented pyrolitic graphite and a solution of phenyloctane, are imaged. The gold tips used are chemically modified by 4‐mercaptobenzoic acid and 4‐mercaptotoluene. The stability of the ordered overlayers formed facilitates the reproducible set of images with submolecular resolution. This allows the identification of the layer regular structure and of other features within molecules, which can be unambiguously related to the fingerprints of the COO bond. Moreover, we are interested in finding evidence of molecular motions observed at domain boundaries.