Herringbone Reconstruction-Mediated assembly of 2-(Hydroxymethyl)benzimidazole molecules on Au(111) studied by scanning tunneling microscope

作者：Bian, Yajie; Cheng, Junbo; Zhang, Yuyi; Sun, Haitao; Zhang, Jun^*; Zhang, Xiaolei^*; Jin, Qingyuan

来源：Chemical Physics Letters, 2022, 803: 139799.

DOI：10.1016/j.cplett.2022.139799

• Benzimidazole-based molecule
• Assembly
• Herringbone reconstruction
• Scanning tunneling microscope

Here we use scanning tunneling microscopy to study the self-assembly of 2-(hydroxymethyl)benzimidazole (HMBI) molecules and the thermal stability of the assemblies on the herringbone structure of a reconstructed Au (111) surface. Our observations indicate that hydrogen-bond interactions between HMBI molecules and the molecule-substrate interaction collectively determine the arrangement of the molecules on the surface. After annealing, the molecules can dehydrogenate and form molecule-metal coordinated structures. We also observe that the herringbones from the substrate are expanded in hydrogen-bonded film but compressed in metal coordinated structures compared with that of the native Au(111) surface, demonstrating a mutual influence between adsorbate and substrate.