Clarifying the Adsorption of Triphenylamine on Au(111): Filling the HOMO-LUMO Gap Show others and affiliations
2022 (English) In: The Journal of Physical Chemistry C, ISSN 1932-7447, E-ISSN 1932-7455, Vol. 126, no 3, p. 1635-1643Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
In this article, we analyze the electronic structure modifications of triphenylamine (TPA), a well-known electron donor molecule widely used in photovoltaics and optoelectronics, upon deposition on Au(111) at a monolayer coverage. A detailed study was carried out by synchrotron radiation-based photoelectron spectroscopy, near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy, scanning tunneling microscopy (STM), and ab initio calculations. We detect a new feature in the pre-edge energy region of the N K-edge NEXAFS spectrum that extends over 3 eV, which we assign to transitions involving new electronic states. According to our calculations, upon adsorption, a number of new unoccupied electronic states fill the energy region between the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) and the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the free TPA molecule and give rise to the new feature the pre-edge region of the NEXAFS spectrum. This finding highlights the occurrence of a considerable modification of the electronic structure of TPA. The appearance of new states in the HOMO-LUMO gap of TPA when adsorbed on Au(111) has crucial implications for the design of molecular nanoelectronic devices based on similar donor systems.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages American Chemical Society (ACS) , 2022. Vol. 126, no 3, p. 1635-1643
National Category
Atom and Molecular Physics and Optics
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-310190 DOI: 10.1021/acs.jpcc.1c08877 ISI: 000760326400039 PubMedID: 35116088 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85123374328 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-310190 DiVA, id: diva2:1649590
Note QC 20220404
2022-04-042022-04-042024-03-15 Bibliographically approved