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Updated: Mar 22, 2026

Self-assembling Morphologies Obtained from Helical Polycarbodiimide Copolymers and Their Triazole Derivatives
Published on: February 7, 2017
Two-dimensional self-assembly of benzotriazole on an inert substrate
F Grillo1, J A Garrido Torres1, M-J Treanor1
1EaStCHEM and School of Chemistry, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 9ST, UK. federico.grillo@st-andrews.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The ultra-high vacuum (UHV) room temperature adsorption of benzotriazole (BTAH), a well-known corrosion inhibitor for copper, has been investigated on the pristine Au(111) surface using a combination of surface sensitive techniques. The dimensionality of the molecule is reduced from the 3D crystal structure to a 2-dimensional surface confinement, which induces the formation of hydrogen bonded 1-dimensional molecular chains consisting of alternating pro-S and pro-R enantiomers mainly. The 0-dimensional system is characteristic of gas-phase BTAH, which undergoes a tautomeric equilibrium, with consequences for the resulting adsorbed species. The balance between hydrogen bonding, inter-chain van der Waals interactions and surface-molecule interactions, and the correlation with the dimensionality of the system, are discussed in light of the experimental results and a computational description of the observed features.
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