title: Dynamics in physisorbed monolayers of 5-alkoxy-isophthalic acid derivatives at the liquid/solid interface investigated by scanning tunneling microscopy
abstract: Monolayers of isophthalic acid derivatives at the liquid/solid interface have been studied with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). We have investigated the dynamics related to the phenomenon of solvent co-deposition, which was previously observed by our research group when using octan-1-ol or undecan-1-ol as solvents for 5-alkoxy-isophthalic acid derivatives. This solvent co-deposition has now been visualized in real-time (two frames per second) for the first time. Dynamics of individual molecules were investigated in mixtures of semi-fluorinated molecules with video-STM. The specific contrast arising from fluorine atoms in STM images allows us to use this functionality as a probe to analyze the data obtained for the mixtures under investigation. Upon imaging the same region of a monolayer for a period of time we observed that non-fluorinated molecules progressively substitute the fluorinated molecules. These findings illustrate the metastable equilibrium that exists at the liquid/solid interface, between the physisorbed molecules and the supernatant solution.
authors.affiliation: University of Leuven (KULeuven), Department of Chemistry, Heverlee, Belgium.
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Gesquiere
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Abdel-Mottaleb
authors.lastname: De Feyter S
authors.lastname: De Schryver FC
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sieffert
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mullen
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Calderone
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lazzaroni
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Bredas