The field of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) has witnessed tremendous growth in synthetic sophistication and depth of characterization over the past 15 years.1 However, it is interesting to comment on the modest beginning and on important milestones. The field really began much earlier than is now recognized. In 1946 Zisman published the preparation of a monomolecular layer by adsorption (self-assembly) of a surfactant onto a clean metal surface.2 At that time, the potential of self-assembly was not recognized, and this publication initiated only a limited level of interest. Early work initiated in Kuhn’s laboratory at Gottingen, applying many years of experience in using chlorosilane derivative to hydrophobize glass, was followed by the more recent discovery, when Nuzzo and Allara showed that SAMs of alkanethiolates on gold can be prepared by adsorption of di-n-alkyl disulfides from dilute solutions.3 Getting away from the moisture-sensitive alkyl trichlorosilanes, as well as working with crystalline gold surfaces, were two important reasons for the success of these SAMs. Many self-assembly systems have since been investigated, but monolayers of alkanethiolates on gold are probably the most studied SAMs to date. The formation of monolayers by self-assembly of surfactant molecules at surfaces is one example of the general phenomena of self-assembly. In nature, self-assembly results in supermolecular hierarchical organizations of interlocking components that provides very complex systems.4 SAMs offer unique opportunities to increase fundamental understanding of self-organization, structure-property relationships, and interfacial phenomena. The ability to tailor both head and tail groups of the constituent molecules makes SAMs excellent systems for a more fundamental understanding of phenomena affected by competing intermolecular, molecular-substrates and molecule-solvent interactions like ordering and growth, wetting, adhesion, lubrication, and corrosion. That SAMs are well-defined and accessible makes them good model systems for studies of physical chemistry and statistical physics in two dimensions, and the crossover to three dimensions. SAMs provide the needed design flexibility, both at the individual molecular and at the material levels, and offer a vehicle for investigation of specific interactions at interfaces, and of the effect of increasing molecular complexity on the structure and stability of two-dimensional assemblies. These studies may eventually produce the design capabilities needed for assemblies of three-dimensional structures.5 However, this will require studies of more complex systems and the combination of what has been learned from SAMs with macromolecular science. The exponential growth in SAM research is a demonstration of the changes chemistry as a disciAbraham Ulman was born in Haifa, Israel, in 1946. He studied chemistry in the Bar-Ilan University in Ramat-Gan, Israel, and received his B.Sc. in 1969. He received his M.Sc. in phosphorus chemistry from Bar-Ilan University in 1971. After a brief period in industry, he moved to the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot, Israel, and received his Ph.D. in 1978 for work on heterosubstituted porphyrins. He then spent two years at Northwestern University in Evanston, IL, where his main interest was onedimensional organic conductors. In 1985 he joined the Corporate Research Laboratories of Eastman Kodak Company, in Rochester, NY, where his research interests were molecular design of materials for nonlinear optics and self-assembled monolayers. In 1994 he moved to Polytechnic University where he is the Alstadt-Lord-Mark Professor of Chemistry. His interests encompass self-assembled monolayers, surface engineering, polymers at interface, and surfaces phenomena. 1533 Chem. Rev. 1996, 96, 1533−1554

/pdf/formation-and-structure-of-self-assembled-monolayers-5eorfomxfu.pdf

Formation and Structure of Self-Assembled Monolayers.

Low‐energy electron diffraction and reflection‐absorption infrared spectroscopy were used to study the monolayers formed by the adsorption of n‐alkane thiols [HS(CH2)mCH3] on both (111) and (100) single‐crystal gold substrates. Samples were prepared by dosing either from solution (m=15, 17, 18, and 21) or in ultrahigh vacuum (m=0–9). On Au(111), ordered surface structures are obtained which can be indexed as (n√3×√3)R30°, where n varies from 1 to 6. On Au(100), the adsorption of short chain thiols leads to the formation of a c(2×2) overlayer while the longer chain homologs show additional diffraction spot splittings. It is also found that chain length influences both the character of the diffraction seen and perturbs the reactive sticking probability of molecules dosed in UHV. Infrared studies reveal that the polymethylene chains of the monolayers formed on Au(100) are comprised of nearly all‐trans conformations and are less canted than the comparable structures formed on Au(111). A simple model is propos...

Molecular ordering of organosulfur compounds on Au(111) and Au(100): Adsorption from solution and in ultrahigh vacuum

n-Alkanethiol (CnH2n+1SH) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) adsorbed on Au(111) were studied with an atomic force microscope (AFM) to confirm the influence of the lateral interaction between adsorbe...

Surface Phase Behavior of n-Alkanethiol Self-Assembled Monolayers Adsorbed on Au(111): An Atomic Force Microscope Study

Electrochemical and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopic evidence for differences in the binding sites of alkanethiolate monolayers chemisorbed at gold

Redox reactions of heme-containing metalloproteins: dynamic effects of self-assembled monolayers on thermodynamics and kinetics of cytochrome c electron-transfer reactions

The adsorption of self-organizing thiol films on polycrystalline gold substrates was investigated in situ by optical second harmonic generation. Growth of the films could be detected at submonolayer coverage. For a comparison with classical surface analytical methods the thiol coverage was measured ex situ by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. We find that formation of ordered thiol films up to monolayer coverage can be described by Langmuir adsorption kinetics.

Investigation of self-organizing thiol films by optical second harmonic generation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

The adsorption kinetics of self-assembling n-alkyl thiol films on poly cry stalline gold substrates was studied in situ by optical second harmonic generation (SHG). The relation between the SHG signal change and the thiol coverage was established by comparison with ex situ X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. We find that the temporal dependence of the adsorption is well described by Langmuir adsorption kinetics. The source of the SHG signal is found to be linearly related to the nonlinear susceptibility of the adsorbate-substrate interaction. Experiments with chain lengths ranging from 1 to 22 showed, that the saturation coverage for thiols longer than hexanethiol is equal.

Optical Second Harmonic Generation of Thiols Adsorbed on Gold

Popular Tasks used by Researchers

How can I help with your research?

Get more enhanced response by uploading the PDFs you want me to reference.

No relevant PDFs in your library

SciSpace is the AI research assistant for academics. Run systematic literature reviews on 280M+ papers, and write papers with cited sources. Trusted by 1M+ students, PhDs & researchers.

SciSpace | AI for Research

We encountered an error while loading the panel. Please try refreshing the page.

Something went wrong

Analyze PDFs

Code & Manuscripts

Funding & Grants

Literature & Patents

Medical & Clinical Data

Systematic Review

Visualize & Present

Web & Data

Build a Google Scholar-like website for your research.

Build a website

Create charts and images for your research

Create a Chart

Write a paper for submission to a journal

Draft a manuscript

Patent Search

Design eye-catching scientific posters in minutes.

Scientific Poster Generation

Systematic Literature Review

Anyone with the link can view this chat. You can switch it back to private anytime.

One task is running at the moment. Your messages will be shown right after.

Drag and drop or click here to browse

Loved by <highlight>1 million+</highlight> researchers

Extract a list of specific topics and their sources from unstructured text

Topics

Compare and analyze relevant papers that matches with your search

Papers

Get insights from PDFs and bookmarked papers from your library

My library

Recent searches

Try searching for:

Catch AI-generated content in scholarly and non-scholarly content

{ai} Detector

Ai Writer

Get PDF Summaries, highlighted text explanations 

Chat with PDF

Effortlessly create in-text citations and bibliographies in APA and 2,500 other formats

Citation generator

Get explanations, summaries, and answers on academic papers

Ease up your research workflow with {scispace}'s cohort of exciting AI tools

Elevate your academic writing skills and convey your ideas the way you want

Paraphraser

Explore our range of reading and writing tools

Your file is being prepared and should be ready in a few minutes. If it's a large file, it might take a bit longer. You can close this window, and we'll email you the file when it's done.

You have reached a maximum limit of <strong>{limit}</strong> columns in the table. Remove at least <strong>1</strong> column to add or create another one.

J. Fischer

Author Tools

Chat about Author

Papers

Investigation of self-organizing thiol films by optical second harmonic generation and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy

Optical Second Harmonic Generation of Thiols Adsorbed on Gold