Abstract:
To study the heteroepitaxial growth of apolar organic compounds on
apolar inorganic substrates, the n-alkanes dotriacontane (C32H66) and tritriacontane
(C33H68), dissolved in n-heptane, were deposited onto the (0001) face of
highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG). It was found that both n-alkanes
display epitaxial crystal growth. The hexagonal symmetry of the substrate
surface is reflected by the three preferred orientations of the platelike
crystals. The orientation of the alkane crystals was determined using polarization
microscopy and atomic force microscopy. A Stranski-Krastanov mechanism
for three-dimensional epitaxial growth is proposed, in which the first
layer of n-alkane molecules on the graphite surface is assumed to be one
of the well-known monolayer structures. Three-dimensional nucleation of
the n-alkane crystals occurs on this layer, in such a way that the hydrocarbon
chains of the crystal are parallel to those in the monolayer. From the
point group symmetry of the n-alkane contact plane and the substrate surface,
it was deduced that the epitaxial nuclei Of C32H66 and C33H68 can be deposited
in six and three orientations, respectively, which is in agreement with
the experimental results.