title: Frustrated ostwald ripening in self-assembled monolayers of cruciform pi-systems.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Department of Chemistry, Columbia University, New York, New York 10027, USA.
authors.forename: Gina M
authors.initials: GM
authors.lastname: Florio
authors.forename: Jennifer E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Klare
authors.forename: Michelle O
authors.initials: MO
authors.lastname: Pasamba
authors.forename: Tova L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Werblowsky
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hyers
authors.forename: Bruce J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Berne
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Hybertsen
authors.forename: Colin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nuckolls
authors.forename: George W
authors.initials: GW
authors.lastname: Flynn