J. Phys. Chem. C 127, 3, 1381–1387 (2023)
Iodine-Induced Self-Assembly Structure Transition of Organic Molecules on the Ag(111) Surface
Yongjing Wang1, Kang Ma2,3, Tiantong Zhang3, Philipp Alexander Held4, Armido Studer4, Harald Fuchs5, Zhixin Hu1, Zhixiang Sun1,*, You Han3,*, Hong-Ying Gao2,3,*
1. Center for Joint Quantum Studies and Department of Physics, School of Science, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China;
2. Collaborative Innovation Center of Chemical Science and Engineering, Key Laboratory for Green Chemical Technology of Ministry of Education, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China;
3. School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Tianjin University, Tianjin 300350, China ;
4. Center for Nanotechnology, University of Münster, Heisenbergstraße 11, 48149 Münster, Germany;
5. Organisch-Chemisches Institut, University of Münster, Corrensstraße 40, 48149 Münster, Germany;
Abstract
Iodine adsorption on metal surfaces has been extensively studied, but iodine’s effect on modulating the self- assembly structures of organic molecules has been less discussed. Here, we used low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy and density functional theory to systematically study the self-assembly structure transformation of organic molecules affected by iodine dosing on the Ag(111) surface. We chose 2,6-naphthalenedicarbox- ylic acid and persilylated hexaethynylbenzene molecules and their reaction products as models to explore the changes in the molecular self-assembly structures on the Ag(111) surface induced by iodine deposition. Some new self-assembly structures are obtained by depositing iodine onto the molecules’ co-covered surface at different stages. These findings show that iodine can modulate the self-assembly structure of organic molecules with a weak intermolecular interaction, while those with a stronger intermolecular hydrogen bonding are not affected. The trend is verified with the density functional theory calculations.