Complex surface structures with molecular-scale organization and chemical functionalities have garnered tremendous attention in recent years.  Multicomponent alkanethiol-based chemical films assembled onto noble metal surfaces are commonly utilized due to their rich and well-characterized structures and chemistries. However, the patterning of these films is typically limited to two-dimensional structures due to the reliance on the assembly of monolayers and the limited library of molecules.  Therefore, we have assembled, characterized, and manipulated mercaptoalkanoic acid "molecular ruler" multilayers as a potential strategy to generate three-dimensional chemical films.  These "molecular ruler" multilayers are assembled through the sequential deposition of mercaptoalkanoic acid molecules and coordinated metal ions where the overall film thickness of the multilayers is governed by the number of iterations in the deposition process.  By combining this multilayer assembly strategy with the scanning probe lithography, we can manipulate the local structure of these multilayer films.  We explore the ability to remove various components of the multilayer film as means to gain insight into the assembly process and to generate complex three-dimensional chemical patterns.<br/>

Characterizing and manipulating mercaptoalkanoic acid molecular ruler multilayers using scanning probe lithography

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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