Frustrated ostwald ripening in self-assembled monolayers of cruciform pi-systems.
This study details a scanning tunneling microscopy investigation into the mechanism of chiral grain growth in highly ordered, self-assembled monolayer films composed of cruciform pi-systems. Although the molecules themselves are achiral, when they adsorb from solution onto graphite, they adopt a gear-like conformation that, by virtue of the surface, is chiral. These handed subunits arrange themselves into enantiomeric two-dimensional domains. The unique finding from this study is that Ostwald ripening is frustrated between domain boundaries that are of opposite chirality because direct interconversion between the chiral units on the surface is energetically inhibited.
Florio
Gina M
GM
Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
Klare
Jennifer E
JE
Pasamba
Michelle O
MO
Werblowsky
Tova L
TL
Hyers
Michelle
M
Berne
Bruce J
BJ
Hybertsen
Mark S
MS
Nuckolls
Colin
C
Flynn
George W
GW