RESUMO
As an organic nanostructure, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) play a central role in many aspects of nanotechnology, including molecular electronics. In this work, we show that SAMs based on N-heterocyclic carbenes on a Au(111) substrate offer a high level of crystallinity and also exhibit the highest possible packing density. As a result of this structural optimization, defect concentrations were reduced by 2-3 orders of magnitude and thermal stability was â¼100 K higher than those of any other SAMs on Au. The conductivity of these SAMs is â¼4 orders of magnitude lower than that of standard alkanethiols of comparable length, which together with very low defect concentration and high thermal stability makes them a highly interesting material for potential application in organic thin film transistors. The self-assembly of such dense, highly crystalline, and notably stable structures is associated with strong C-Au bonding and the rational design of assembled molecules, resulting in the high mobility of both adsorbate and substrate atoms, as confirmed by the size of the molecular domains and the adsorbate-driven modification of the Au(111) substrate, respectively.
RESUMO
Ion-induced desorption was successfully applied for the analysis of the stability of chemical bonds at the molecule-metal interface in the case of ionic bonding. The obtained experimental data combined with the results of the DFT calculations reveal the effect of positional oscillations in the stability of consecutive chemical bonds, which has general character in chemistry.