Structure and self-assembly of sequentially adsorbed coronene/octanethiol monolayers

Scanning tunneling microscopy is used to investigate the structure of sequentially adsorbed coronene/octanethiol monolayers on Au(111). In these experiments, coronene-covered gold surfaces are exposed to octanethiol vapor. The resulting mixed monolayers are covered by close-packed octanethiol domains with clusters of coronene located within octanethiol domain boundaries. For these systems, the positions of coronene on the surface are determined by the kinetics of octanethiol monolayer formation and the local structure of the gold. The initial coverage and order of the coronene-covered surface influence the final structure of the mixed coronene/alkanethiol monolayer: deposition of coronene from the vapor phase, which creates a relatively lower coverage and higher degree of order than solution-based deposition, results in smaller coronene clusters. Statistical analysis of the locations of clusters of coronene shows that depending on the deposition parameters, coronene clusters are repelled in varying degree by upward-going and downward-going steps or are attracted to the top edges of surface step defects. In contrast to clusters, isolated coronene molecules are observed in the middle of close-packed octanethiol domains, but also appear to have an affinity for the edge of downward-going steps. We compare these results to mixed monolayers composed of C70 and octanethiol.