Adsorption and electron-induced dissociation of ethanethiol on Au(111).
Dissociation of ethanethiol and the formation of Au-adatom-diethylthiolate rows on the Au(111) surface were investigated using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) at low temperature. Ethanethiol molecules physisorb on Au(111) at 120 K by sequentially occupation of the elbow site, the fcc domain before covering the whole surface with a semiliquid layer without long-range order. Scanning the physisorbed layer with a sample bias higher than +1.2 V leads to dissociation via cleaving the H-S bond. One of the dissociation products, ethylthiolate, forms a double-row structure with the rows aligned in one of the [112(-)] directions. These double rows arise from the Au-adatom-dithiolate species: CH(3)CH(2)S-Au-SCH(2)CH(3).
State Key Laboratory of Low-Dimensional Quantum Physics, Department of Physics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China.
Fangsen
F
Li
Lin
L
Tang
Jianzhi
J
Gao
Wancheng
W
Zhou
Quanmin
Q
Guo