Structure and Electrical Property of Self-Assembled Monolayers Formed by Aromatic Thiols on Au(111)

Abstract

In recent years, aromatic thiol self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold have received much attention due to their high electronic conductivity and nonlinear optical properties. A number of studies have been focused on various aromatic thiol SAMs to understand the packing structures, adsorption kinetics, and orientations of the molecules adsorbed on the gold surface. In this study, we examined the structural effects by introducing the methylene spacer between benzene ring and thiol moiety for controlling their final SAM structure by scanning tunneling microscopy as well as the electrical properties according to SAM films with ordered and disordered structures by cyclic voltametry measurement.