title: Oxidation of an organic adlayer: a bird's eye view.
abstract: The reaction of O(2) with an adlayer of the oligopyridine 2-phenyl-4,6-bis(6-(pyridine-2-yl)-4-(pyridine-4-yl)-pyridine-2-yl)pyrimidine (2,4'-BTP), adsorbed on the (111) surfaces of silver and gold and on HOPG--which can be considered as a model system for inorganic|organic contacts--was investigated by fast scanning tunneling microscopy (video STM) and dispersion corrected density functional theory (DFT-D) calculations. Only on Ag(111), oxidation of the 2,4'-BTP adlayer was observed, which is related to the fact that under the experimental conditions O(2) adsorbs dissociatively on this surface leading to reactive O adatoms, but not on Au(111) or HOPG . There is a distinct regiospecifity of the oxidation reaction caused by intermolecular interactions. In addition, the oxidation leads to a chiral ordering. The relevance of these findings for reactions involving organic monolayers is discussed.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Surface Chemistry and Catalysis, Ulm University, D-89069 Ulm, Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Waldmann
authors.forename: Daniela
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Künzel
authors.forename: Harry E
authors.initials: HE
authors.lastname: Hoster
authors.forename: Axel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: GroSS
authors.forename: R Jürgen
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Behm