TY - JOUR
T1 - Nucleation and growth of copper phthalocyanine aggregates deposited from solution on planar surfaces
AU - Ghani, Fatemeh
AU - Gojzewski, Hubert
AU - Riegler, Hans
PY - 2015/10/1
Y1 - 2015/10/1
N2 - Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) dissolved in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is deposited on solid SiO2 surfaces by solvent evaporation. The deposited CuPc aggregates are investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The CuPc deposits were prepared by spin casting, dip coating, and spray deposition. Depending on the amount of deposited CuPc the aggregate morphology ranges from small individual domains to mesh-like multilayers. Each domain/layer consists of many parallel stacks of CuPc molecules with the square, plate-like molecules piled face-wise within each stack. The parallel stacks are attached sideways (i.e., edgewise attachment molecularly) to the substrate forming "nanoribbons" with uniform thickness of about 1 nm and varying width. The thickness reflects the length of a molecular edge, the width the number of stacks. A nucleation and growth model is presented that explains the observed aggregate and multilayer morphologies as result of the combination of nucleation, transport processes and a consequence of the anisotropic intermolecular interactions due to the shape of the CuPc molecule.
AB - Copper phthalocyanine (CuPc) dissolved in trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) is deposited on solid SiO2 surfaces by solvent evaporation. The deposited CuPc aggregates are investigated by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The CuPc deposits were prepared by spin casting, dip coating, and spray deposition. Depending on the amount of deposited CuPc the aggregate morphology ranges from small individual domains to mesh-like multilayers. Each domain/layer consists of many parallel stacks of CuPc molecules with the square, plate-like molecules piled face-wise within each stack. The parallel stacks are attached sideways (i.e., edgewise attachment molecularly) to the substrate forming "nanoribbons" with uniform thickness of about 1 nm and varying width. The thickness reflects the length of a molecular edge, the width the number of stacks. A nucleation and growth model is presented that explains the observed aggregate and multilayer morphologies as result of the combination of nucleation, transport processes and a consequence of the anisotropic intermolecular interactions due to the shape of the CuPc molecule.
KW - AFM
KW - Copper phthalocyanine
KW - Growth
KW - Nucleation
KW - Solution processing methods
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84964460515&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.06.020
DO - 10.1016/j.apsusc.2015.06.020
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84964460515
VL - 351
SP - 969
EP - 976
JO - Applied surface science
JF - Applied surface science
SN - 0169-4332
ER -