Self-organizing layers from complex molecular anions

Jonas Warneke (), Martin E. McBriarty, Shawn L. Riechers, Swarup China, Mark H. Engelhard, Edoardo Aprà, Robert P. Young, Nancy M. Washton, Carsten Jenne, Grant E. Johnson and Julia Laskin ()
Additional contact information
Jonas Warneke: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Martin E. McBriarty: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Shawn L. Riechers: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Swarup China: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999
Mark H. Engelhard: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999
Edoardo Aprà: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999
Robert P. Young: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999
Nancy M. Washton: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, P.O. Box 999
Carsten Jenne: Bergische Universität Wuppertal
Grant E. Johnson: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Julia Laskin: Pacific Northwest National Laboratory

Nature Communications, 2018, vol. 9, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract The formation of traditional ionic materials occurs principally via joint accumulation of both anions and cations. Herein, we describe a previously unreported phenomenon by which macroscopic liquid-like thin layers with tunable self-organization properties form through accumulation of stable complex ions of one polarity on surfaces. Using a series of highly stable molecular anions we demonstrate a strong influence of the internal charge distribution of the molecular ions, which is usually shielded by counterions, on the properties of the layers. Detailed characterization reveals that the intrinsically unstable layers of anions on surfaces are stabilized by simultaneous accumulation of neutral molecules from the background environment. Different phases, self-organization mechanisms and optical properties are observed depending on the molecular properties of the deposited anions, the underlying surface and the coadsorbed neutral molecules. This demonstrates rational control of the macroscopic properties (morphology and size of the formed structures) of the newly discovered anion-based layers.

Date: 2018
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-04228-2 Abstract (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-04228-2

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
https://www.nature.com/ncomms/

DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-04228-2

Access Statistics for this article

Nature Communications is currently edited by Nathalie Le Bot, Enda Bergin and Fiona Gillespie

More articles in Nature Communications from Nature
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().