Title
Commensurate solid-solid phase transitions in self-assembled monolayers of alkylthiolates lying on metal surfaces
Date Issued
15 August 2012
Access level
metadata only access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Wang Y.
Alcamí M.
Busnengo H.F.
Martín F.
Instituto de Física Rosario (CONICET-UNR)
Publisher(s)
American Chemical Society
Abstract
A temperature-induced commensurate solid-solid phase transition in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkylthiolates lying on Pt(111) is predicted from molecular dynamics simulations based on ab initio potential energy surfaces. As the system cools down from room temperature to low enough temperature, SAMs of alkylthiolates with more than ∼12 carbon atoms undergo an abrupt change of orientation from a nearly upright to a tilted configuration. As the initial hexagonal arrangement of the sulfur headgroups is kept fixed during the simulations, the phase transition is entirely governed by chain-chain interactions. Similar commensurate phase transitions are predicted for hexagonally arranged SAMs with lattice spacings of the order of 4.7-4.9 Å, which, among others, excludes the well-known cases of densely packed SAMs of alkylthiolates on Au(111) and Ag(111). These findings could be relevant for the design of novel electronic or optical devices controllable by temperature. © 2012 American Chemical Society.
Start page
13224
End page
13227
Volume
134
Issue
32
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ingeniería de procesos Ingeniería química
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84865108354
Source
Journal of the American Chemical Society
ISSN of the container
15205126
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus