Molecular-Scale Imaging of Organic Self-Assembled Monolayers on Au(111) by Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

Abstract

The surface structures and self-assembly phenomena of a variety of organosulfur self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold surfaces were examined by scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). It was found that two-dimensional molecular arrangements of organic SAMs can be easily tuned by controlling the interaction balance between the sulfur headgroups and gold surfaces, and between van der Waals interactions of molecular backbones.