Phase transition of carboxylic acid

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. The initial (α) and transformed (β) molecular phases are characterized in detail by X-ray photoemission spectroscopy, single-domain low-energy electron diffraction, room-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy, noncontact atomic force microscopy, and density functional theory calculations. The phase transformation is shown to exhibit a rich variety of phenomena, including Ostwald ripening of the α domains, burst nucleation of the β domains outside the α phase, remote dissolution of the α domains by nearby β domains, and a structural change from disorder to order. 


P. Procházka, M.A. Gosalvez, L. Kormoš, B. de la Torre, A. Gallardo, J. Alberdi-Rodriguez, T. Chutora, A.O. Makoveev, A. Shahsavar, A. Arnau, P. Jelínek and  J. Čechal

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

 

ACS Nano 2020, 14, 6, 7269–7279