Probing the Structure and Orientation of Carboxylic Acid-Terminated Self-Assembled Monolayers

• DOI: 10.1021/acs.langmuir.4c01488
• Publication Date: 2024-08-27T09:53:27Z
• Authors: Ahlam R. M. Alharbi; Tanglaw Roman; Abdulrahman S. Al...; Ingo Köper; Gunther G. Andersson
• Keywords: Self-assembled monolayer; Metastability

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), such as alkanethiols (AT), are widely used functional coatings or interfaces between different materials. There is an assumption that the arrangement and alignment of hydrocarbon chains in films made from carboxyl-terminated similar to those alkanethiols. Here, structure outermost layer near-surface region SAMs formed various lengths has been analyzed. The chemical composition samples was measured using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) angle-resolved XPS (AR-XPS), allowing film thickness. Metastable induced (MIES) a surface analytical tool sensitive only for conjunction with density theory (DFT) calculations provided insights into topmost layer, showing it consists mainly backbone SAM-forming molecules. Through combining AR-XPS concentration depth profiles measurement can be shown tend favor gauche orientation, enabling interactions groups.