Intramolecular diffusive motion in alkane monolayers studied by high-resolution quasielastic neutron scattering and molecular dynamics simulations.
Molecular dynamics simulations of a tetracosane (n-C24H50) monolayer adsorbed on a graphite basal-plane surface show that there are diffusive motions associated with the creation and annihilation of gauche defects occurring on a time scale of approximately 0.1-4 ns. We present evidence that these relatively slow motions are observable by high-energy-resolution quasielastic neutron scattering (QNS) thus demonstrating QNS as a technique, complementary to nuclear magnetic resonance, for studying conformational dynamics on a nanosecond time scale in molecular monolayers.
Department of Chemistry, Technical University of Denmark, IK 207 DTU, DK-2800 Lyngby, Denmark.
F Y
FY
Hansen
L
L
Criswell
D
D
Fuhrmann
K W
KW
Herwig
A
A
Diama
R M
RM
Dimeo
D A
DA
Neumann
U G
UG
Volkmann
H
H
Taub