Abstract:

Highly ordered molecular monolayers at the solid/liquid interfaces play a critical role in many technologically important areas, such as lubrication, adhesion, molecular recognition and chemical reactions. Although there are a number of results on the monolayers of organic molecules physisorbed on the solid surfaces being reported, the role of the substrate lattice parameters, the substrate structures and the defects in the formation of the highly ordered monolayers has not yet well explored. In this paper, we reported the scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) studies of the self-assembling phenomenon of n-alkanes in the interfaces between n-alkane solutions and the Au(111) surfaces.