Ordered alkane-thiol monolayers on the liquid mercury surface

COLL 515

Benjamin M. Ocko1, Henning Kraack2, E Sloutskin2, M Deutsch2, and Peter Pershan3. (1) Physics Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, (2) Physics Department, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel, (3) Physics Dept, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA
Self assembled monolayers of n-alkanethiols on crystalline surfaces have been studied extensively and it is well known that the substrate plays an important role in determining their structural properties. Here we report surface x-ray scattering, grazing angle diffraction and reflectivity measurements, and surface-pressure isotherms results for n-alkanethiols, n=18 and 22, on the liquid mercury surface. At room temperature, with increasing coverage, the surface undergoes a sequence of phases, where the molecules form a (1) 2D Gas, (2) ordered lying down monolayer, (3) tilted standing-up monolayer with orthorhombic packing, and (4) and untilted standing up monolayer with hexagonal packing. The lying down phase is smectic-like, having long-range order normal to the chains but not along the chains. For the standing up phases, the unit cell is not body-centered and has a herringbone ordering. The structure suggests the possibility of sulfur dimerization, in the absence of a crystalline subphase. Our results will be compared with those on the crystalline metal surfaces of Ag and Au.
 

Adamson Award Symposium Honoring Dave Allara and Ralph Nuzzo

Division of Colloid and Surface Chemistry
The 225th ACS National Meeting, New Orleans, LA, March 23-27, 2003