title: Assisted deprotonation of formic acid on Cu(111) and self-assembly of 1D chains.
abstract: Formic acid (HCOOH) deprotonates on the open surfaces of Cu(110) and Cu(100) when exposed at 300 K. However, this does not occur on the close-packed surface of clean Cu(111). In this study, we show that the deprotonation of formic acid on atomically flat Cu(111) surfaces can be induced by pre-adsorbing polymeric formic acid clusters at low temperatures, and then annealing the system to break the acidic O-H bond of HCOOH adsorbed on the edges of the polymeric clusters. The thermal activation of HCOOH to bidentate formate was studied using a combination of infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, and near edge X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy. Extended 1D formate structures self-assemble due to a templating effect introduced by the formation of long α-polymeric formic acid chains commensurate with the substrate.
authors.affiliation: Chemistry Department, Brookhaven National Laboratory, Upton, NY 11973, USA.
authors.forename: Ashleigh E
authors.initials: AE
authors.lastname: Baber
authors.forename: Kumudu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mudiyanselage
authors.forename: Sanjaya D
authors.initials: SD
authors.lastname: Senanayake
authors.forename: Alba
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Beatriz-Vidal
authors.forename: Kyle A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Luck
authors.forename: E Charles H
authors.initials: EC
authors.lastname: Sykes
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.forename: José A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Rodriguez
authors.forename: Darío J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Stacchiola