Bridge-bonded methylthiolate on Au(111) observed with the scanning tunneling microscope

Abstract

We report the discovery of bridge-bonded methylthiolate, SCH₃, along the step edges of the Au(111) surface. Real-space imaging with a scanning tunnelling microscope reveals the presence of bridge-bonded SCH₃ along both the [10] and the [11] oriented step edges. The nearest neighbour distances of SCH₃ along these steps are 2a and , respectively. The Au(111) terrace is covered with the usual CH₃SAuSCH₃ staples. The bridge-bonded alkanethiolate is expected to play a rather significant role in the formation of thiol-passivated Au nanoclusters because of the high fraction of atoms in similar low-coordination sites.