Ordered thin films of alkyloxy-substituted benzaldehydes on a graphite surface studied by scanning tunneling microscopy

The molecular assembly of three different trialkyloxy-substituted benzaldehydes on graphite has been studied using scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). It is found that these benzaldehydes, which do not have intermolecular hydrogen bonding, could form a lamella arrangement in which the headgroups are aligned side by side. The effect due to the alkyl chain length on the lamella structure is also presented. Received: 21 January 2002 / Accepted: 22 March 2002 / Published online: 10 September 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +86-10/6255-7908