Organic Functionalization at the Si(001) Dimer Vacancy Defect – Structure, Bonding and Reactivity

In this density functional theory study, the influence of the dimer vacancy on the reactivity of the Si(001) surface is investigated. To this end, electronic and structural properties of the defect are analyzed. Band structure calculations reveal a higher-lying valence band which would suggest increased reactivity. However, the opposite is found when organic molecules for interface formation (acetylene, ethylene and cyclooctyne) are adsorbed at the defect. Significant reaction barriers have to be overcome in order to form bonds with defect atoms, while adsorption on the pristine surface is mostly direct. This suggests the presence of a, rather weak, Si-Si bond across the defect which must be dissociated before organic adsorbates can react. A rich adsorption and reaction network is found in addition to the structures known from the pristine surface. All three investigated adsorbates show different bonding characteristics. For acetylene and ethylene, the preferred thermodynamic sink is the insertion into the defect, with the latter molecule even dissociating. Bulky cyclooctyne on the other hand avoids reaction with the defect due to steric demands imposed by the small defect cavity. The DV has no effect on reactivity of neighboring dimers. A combination of defect creation and hydrogen-precoverage could be a promising approach for selective surface functionalization. We thus show the influence of a non-ideal surface on organic functionalization and interface build-up reactions for a prototypical interface. <br>

Organic Functionalization on the Non-Ideal Si(001) Surface – Structure, Bonding and Reactivity

In this density functional theory study, the influence of the dimer vacancy on the reactivity of the Si(001) surface is investigated. To this end, electronic and structural properties of the defect are analyzed. Band structure calculations reveal a higher-lying valence band which would suggest increased reactivity. However, the opposite is found when organic molecules for interface formation (acetylene, ethylene and cyclooctyne) are adsorbed at the defect. Significant reaction barriers have to be overcome in order to form bonds with defect atoms, while adsorption on the pristine surface is mostly direct. This suggests the presence of a, rather weak, Si-Si bond across the defect which must be dissociated before organic adsorbates can react. A rich adsorption and reaction network is found in addition to the structures known from the pristine surface. All three investigated adsorbates show different bonding characteristics. For acetylene and ethylene, the preferred thermodynamic sink is the insertion into the defect, with the latter molecule even dissociating. Bulky cyclooctyne on the other hand avoids reaction with the defect due to steric demands imposed by the small defect cavity. The DV has no effect on reactivity of neighboring dimers. A combination of defect creation and hydrogen-precoverage could be a promising approach for selective surface functionalization. We thus show the influence of a non-ideal surface on organic functionalization and interface build-up reactions for a prototypical interface. <br>

Organic Functionalization on the Non-Ideal Si(001) Surface – Structure, Bonding and Reactivity

In this density functional theory study, the influence of the dimer vacancy on the reactivity of the Si(001) surface is investigated. To this end, electronic and structural properties of the defect are analyzed. Band structure calculations reveal a higher-lying valence band which would suggest increased reactivity. However, the opposite is found when organic molecules for interface formation (acetylene, ethylene and cyclooctyne) are adsorbed at the defect. Significant reaction barriers have to be overcome in order to form bonds with defect atoms, while adsorption on the pristine surface is mostly direct. This suggests the presence of a, rather weak, Si-Si bond across the defect which must be dissociated before organic adsorbates can react. A rich adsorption and reaction network is found in addition to the structures known from the pristine surface. All three investigated adsorbates show different bonding characteristics. For acetylene and ethylene, the preferred thermodynamic sink is the insertion into the defect, with the latter molecule even dissociating. Bulky cyclooctyne on the other hand avoids reaction with the defect due to steric demands imposed by the small defect cavity. The DV has no effect on reactivity of neighboring dimers. A combination of defect creation and hydrogen-precoverage could be a promising approach for selective surface functionalization. We thus show the influence of a non-ideal surface on organic functionalization and interface build-up reactions for a prototypical interface. <br>

Temperature-Programmed Desorption of Large Molecules: Influence of Thin Film Structure and Origin of Intermolecular Repulsion

Although the exact knowledge of the binding energy of organic adsorbates on solid surfaces is of vital importance for the realization of molecular nanostructures and the theoretical modelling of molecule-substrate...

Combined orbital tomography study of multi-configurational molecular adsorbate systems

Molecular reactivity is determined by the energy levels and spatial extent of the frontier orbitals. Orbital tomography based on angle-resolved photoelectron spectroscopy is an elegant method to study the electronic structure of organic adsorbates, however, it is conventionally restricted to systems with one single rotational domain. In this work, we extend orbital tomography to systems with multiple rotational domains. We characterise the hydrogen evolution catalyst Co-pyrphyrin on an Ag(110) substrate and compare it with the empty pyrphyrin ligand. In combination with low-energy electron diffraction and DFT simulations, we fully determine adsorption geometry and both energetics and spatial distributions of the valence electronic states. We find two states close to the Fermi level in Co-pyrphyrin with Co $$3d$$3d character that are not present in the empty ligand. In addition, we identify several energetically nearly equivalent adsorption geometries that are important for the understanding of the electronic structure. The ability to disentangle and fully elucidate multi-configurational systems renders orbital tomography much more useful to study realistic catalytic systems.

Dispersion-mediated steering of organic adsorbates on a precovered silicon surface

The chemistry of organic adsorbates on surfaces is often discussed in terms of Pauli repulsion as limiting factor regarding the packing of molecules. Here we show that the attractive part of the van der Waals potential can be similarly decisive. For the semiconductor surface Si(001), an already covalently bonded molecule of cyclooctyne steers a second incoming molecule via dispersion interactions onto the neighbouring adsorption site. This helps in understanding the nonstatistical pattern formation for this surface–adsorbate system and hints toward an inclusion of dispersion attraction as another determining factor for surface adsorption.