Multiscale Analysis of Phase Transformations in Self-Assembled Layers of 4,4'-Biphenyl Dicarboxylic Acid on the Ag(001) Surface.

Understanding the nucleation and growth kinetics of thin films is a prerequisite for their large-scale utilization in devices. For self-assembled molecular phases near thermodynamic equilibrium the nucleation-growth kinetic models are still not developed. Here, we employ real-time low-energy electron microscopy (LEEM) to visualize a phase transformation induced by the carboxylation of 4,4'-biphenyl dicarboxylic acid on Ag(001) under ultra-high-vacuum conditions.

Complex k-uniform tilings by a simple bitopic precursor self-assembled on Ag(001) surface.

The realization of complex long-range ordered structures in a Euclidean plane presents a significant challenge en route to the utilization of their unique physical and chemical properties. Recent progress in on-surface supramolecular chemistry has enabled the engineering of regular and semi-regular tilings, expressing translation symmetric, quasicrystalline, and fractal geometries. However, the k-uniform tilings possessing several distinct vertices remain largely unexplored.

The Structure of the Cobalt Oxide/Au Catalyst Interface in Electrochemical Water Splitting.

The catalytic synergy between cobalt oxide and gold leads to strong promotion of the oxygen evolution reaction (OER)-one half-reaction of electrochemical water splitting. However, the mechanism behind the enhancement effect is still not understood, in part due to a missing structural model of the active interface. Using a novel interplay of cyclic voltammetry (CV) for electrochemistry integrated with scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) on an atomically defined cobalt oxide/Au(111) system, we reveal here that the supporting gold substrate uniquely favors a flexible cobalt-oxyhydroxide/Au interface in the electrochemically active potential window and thus suppresses the formation of less active bulk cobalt oxide morphologies.