Dipole-driven self-organization of zwitterionic molecules on alkali halide surfaces

Autor: Laurent Nony, Franck Bocquet, Franck Para, Frédéric Chérioux, Eric Duverger, Frank Palmino, Vincent Luzet, Christian Loppacher
Jazyk: angličtina
Rok vydání: 2012
Předmět:
Zdroj: Beilstein Journal of Nanotechnology, Vol 3, Iss 1, Pp 285-293 (2012)
Druh dokumentu: article
ISSN: 2190-4286
DOI: 10.3762/bjnano.3.32
Popis: We investigated the adsorption of 4-methoxy-4′-(3-sulfonatopropyl)stilbazolium (MSPS) on different ionic (001) crystal surfaces by means of noncontact atomic force microscopy. MSPS is a zwitterionic molecule with a strong electric dipole moment. When deposited onto the substrates at room temperature, MSPS diffuses to step edges and defect sites and forms disordered assemblies of molecules. Subsequent annealing induces two different processes: First, at high coverage, the molecules assemble into a well-organized quadratic lattice, which is perfectly aligned with the directions of the substrate surface (i.e., rows of equal charges) and which produces a Moiré pattern due to coincidences with the substrate lattice constant. Second, at low coverage, we observe step edges decorated with MSPS molecules that run along the direction. These polar steps most probably minimize the surface energy as they counterbalance the molecular dipole by presenting oppositely charged ions on the rearranged step edge.
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