Time- and Temperature-Dependent Growth Behavior of Ionic Liquids on Au(111) Studied by Atomic Force Microscopy in Ultrahigh Vacuum.

ABSTRACT: We deposited defined amounts of [C₁C₁Im][Tf₂N] on Au(111) at different temperatures and investigated the morphology and wetting behavior of the deposited films by atomic force microscopy. For multilayer coverages, we observe a drastically different growth behavior when comparing deposition at room temperature (RT) and deposition below 170 K followed by slow annealing to RT. Upon deposition at RT, we find the formation of 2-30 nm high and 50-500 nm wide metastable 3D droplets on top of a checkerboard-type wetting layer. These droplets spread out into stable 2D bilayers, on the time scale of hours and days. The same 2D bilayer structure is obtained after deposition below 170 K and slow annealing to RT. We present a statistical analysis on the time-dependent c

SUBMITTER: Meusel M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8474146 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature