The interface electronic structure of thiol terminated molecules on cobalt and gold surfaces

Authors

A. N. Caruso, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Ligen Wang, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Sitaram Jaswal, University of NebraskaFollow
Evgeny Y. Tsymbal, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow
Peter A. Dowben, University of Nebraska-LincolnFollow

Date of this Version

July 2006

Comments

Published in Journal of Materials Science. Published online July 6, 2006. Copyright © 2006 Springer Science + Business Media, LLC. Used by permission. DOI 10.1007/s10853-006-0362-7

Abstract

The bonding strength and interfacial electronic properties of biphenyldimethyldithiol (HS– CH₂–C₆H₄–C₆H₄–CH₂–SH) adsorbed on Au(111) and polycrystalline cobalt are identified from combined photoemission and inverse photoemission. In order to develop a better understanding of the thiol functional group to metal surface interaction, the stable orientation, bonding site, bonding strength and interfacial electronic properties of methylthiol (S–CH₃) adsorbed on Au(111) and Co(0001) have been determined by ab initio density functional calculations. Both experiment and theory suggest that thiol bonding to cobalt surfaces is stronger compared to gold surfaces. The transfer of charge toward the adsorbed sulfur is greater for the thiols on cobalt than on gold.