Abstract
The growth behavior of self-assembled monolayer films strongly depends on parameters such as solvent, water concentration in the solvent, substrate type, and deposition method. A further parameter, the temperature, is of particular importance. It has been found that growth kinetics, size, and shape of the structures obtained strongly depend on the deposition temperature. Thus, exact adjustment and control of the solution temperature is of crucial importance for investigation of deposition mechanisms. The development of a temperature control unit has been the basis for a series of experiments on deposition of octadecyltrichlorosilane (OTS) on silicon wafers to study the influence of temperature on growth kinetics and film structure. Characterization of the films was performed with ellipsometry and atomic-force microscopy. It has been found that octadecylsiloxane (ODS) island sizes decrease with increasing temperature. Furthermore, a characteristic temperature exists above which increasingly disordered deposition occurs. At low temperatures (5–10 °C) smaller dot-like features are observed besides larger fractally shaped islands characteristic for self-assembly growth of ODS films. Our results indicate that these small dot-like features originate from ordered aggregates in the adsorption solution and that they are the precursors of the formation of larger islands. However, they can only be observed at low temperatures, because at room temperature they coalesce quickly to form larger units, due to the high surface mobility.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Maoz R, Sagiv J (1984) J Colloid Interface Sci 100:465
Ulman A (1996) Chem Rev 96:1533
Schreiber F (2000) Progr Surf Sci 65:151
Schwartz DK, Steinberg S, Israelachvili J, Zasadzinski JAN (1992) Phys Rev Lett 69:3354
Angst DL, Simmons GW (1991) Langmuir 7:2236
Allara DL, Parikh AN, Rondelez F (1995) Langmuir 11:2357
Le Grange JD, Markham JL, Kurkjian CR (1993) Langmuir 9:1749
Bierbaum K, Grunze M, Baski AA, Chi LF, Schrepp W, Fuchs H (1995) Langmuir 11:2143
Foisner J, Glaser A, Kattner J, Hoffmann H, Friedbacher G (2003) Langmuir 19:3741
Terrill RH, Tanzer TA, Bohn PW (1998) Langmuir 14:845
Rozlosnik N, Gerstenberg MC, Larsen NB (2003) Langmuir 19:1182
Iimura K-I, Nakajima Y, Kato T (2000) Thin Solid Films 379:230
Brunner H, Vallant T, Mayer U, Hoffmann H, Basnar B, Vallant M, Friedbacher G (1999) Langmuir 15:1899
Leitner T, Friedbacher G, Vallant T, Brunner H, Mayer U, Hoffmann H (2000) Mikrochim Acta 133:331
Vallant T, Brunner H, Mayer U, Hoffmann H, Leitner T, Resch R, Friedbacher G (1998) J Phys Chem B 102:7190
Parikh AN, Allara DL, Azuz IB, Rondelez F (1994) J Phys Chem 98:7577
Rye RR (1997) Langmuir 13:2588
Carraro C, Yauw OW, Sung MM, Maboudian R (1998) J Phys Chem B 102:4441
McCrackin F, Passaglia E, Stromberg R, Steinberg H (1963) J Res Natl Bur Stand A 67:363
Bunker BC, Carpick RW, Assink RA, Thomas ML, Hankins MG, Voigt JA, Sipola D, de Boer MP, Gulley GL (2000) Langmuir 16:7742
Glaser A, Foisner J, Hoffmann H, Friedbacher G (2004) Langmuir, in press
Acknowledgement
Financial support of this work by the Austrian Fonds zur Förderung der wissenschaftlichen Forschung (FWF project number P14763) is gratefully acknowledged. Special thanks to Dieter Holzinger and Guido Kickelbick, Institute of Materials Chemistry, Vienna University of Technology, for providing the opportunity to carry out light scattering experiments.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Glaser, A., Foisner, J., Friedbacher, G. et al. Low-temperature investigation of the growth mechanism of alkylsiloxane self-assembled monolayers. Anal Bioanal Chem 379, 653–657 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-004-2620-3
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00216-004-2620-3