title: Amplification of conformational effects via tert-butyl groups: hexa-tert-butyl decacyclene on Cu(100) at room temperature.
abstract: The design of molecular systems as functional elements for use in next-generation electronic sensors and devices often relies on the addition of functional groups acting as spacers to modify adsorbate-substrate interactions. Although advantageous in many regards, these spacer groups have the secondary effect of amplifying internal conformational effects of the parent molecule. Here we investigate one such molecule-2,5,8,11,14,17-hexa-tert-butyl-decacyclene (HBDC, C60H66)-deposited on Cu(100) at monolayer and submonolayer coverages using an ultra-high vacuum (UHV) scanning tunneling microscope (STM). By combining submolecular resolution imaging with computational methods, we describe a variety of properties related to the effects of adding tert-butyl spacers to a decacyclene core, including the molecular conformation, structure, and chiral separation of the molecular adlayer, strong intermolecular interactions, and a metastable pinned conformation of the molecule brought on by deformation under high-bias conditions that enable an examination of its diffusive 2D molecular gas at room temperature. Collectively, these observations provide direct insight into the effect of adding spacers to a flexible molecular core such as decacyclene as relates to both intermolecular and adsorbate-substrate interfaces.
authors: Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, California 90095, United States.
authors: Greg
authors: G
authors: Pawin
authors: Adam Z
authors: AZ
authors: Stieg
authors: Catherine
authors: C
authors: Skibo
authors: Maricarmen
authors: M
authors: Grisolia
authors: Reto R
authors: RR
authors: Schilittler
authors: Véronique
authors: V
authors: Langlais
authors: Yoshitaka
authors: Y
authors: Tateyama
authors: Christian
authors: C
authors: Joachim
authors: James K
authors: JK
authors: Gimzewski