Theoretical study of coupling p-aminothiophenol to hydroazo- and azo-adducts on Au(111)

Aminothiophenol/Au(111) has been adopted as an exemplary model in plasmonics research, including surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, due to its high plasmonic-induced spectral-signal enhancement. The present work was aimed at clarifying whether aminothiophenol on Au(111) is chemically stable in the absence of any photo- and plasmonic-induced effects. Briefly, first-principles calculations were employed to track the detailed mechanism of oxidative coupling of p-aminothiophenol (PATP) to its azo-adduct with an N = N bond, i.e., p,p'-dimercaptoazobenzene (DMAB). Our results show the following: first, in the presence of adsorbed O2, PATP fractures its N-H bond and transfers the hydrogen to a nearby oxygen. This pathway is more favorable than the transfer of H to Au, but the activation barrier of 0.9 eV is still too high for the reaction to occur in the absence of thermal-, photo-, or plasmonic-activation. If this bar can be lifted, two such dehydrogenated PATP can couple themselves to form an adduct with a N-N bond, i.e., p,p'-dimercaptohydroazobenzene (DMHAB), and this reaction is exoergic with an energy barrier of 0.57 eV. Again, this step is slow in the absence of moderate thermal activation or photo-/plasmonic-activation. Finally, dehydrogenation of DMHAB gives the azo-adduct of DMAB, and this reaction is spontaneous, with no energy barrier.