Journal of the American Chemical Society, Vol.127, No.24, 8697-8704, 2005
Structures and displacement of 1-adamantanethiol self-assembled monolayers on Au{111}
We have designed monolayers with weak intermolecular interactions for use as placeholders in intelligent self- and directed-assembly. We have shown that these 1-adamantanethiolate monolayers are labile with respect to displacement by exposing them to dilute solutions of alkanethiols. These self-assembled monolayers (SAMS) of 1-adamantanethiol on Au{111} were probed using ambient scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and their assembled order was determined. Solution deposition of the molecules results in a highly ordered hexagonally close-packed molecular lattice with a measured nearest neighbor distance of 6.9 +/- 0.4 angstrom. The SAMS exhibit several rotational domains, but lack the protruding domain boundaries typical of alkanethiolate SAMS, and are similarly stable at room temperature. Co-deposition of alkanethiol and 1-adamantanethiol from solution results in alkanethiolate SAMS, except when using extremely low alkanethiol to 1-adamantanethiol concentration ratios. Facile displacement of low interaction strength SAMS can be exploited to enhance patterning using soft nanolithography.