Study of alkyl organic monolayers with different molecular chain lengths directly attached to silicon

Alkyl organic monolayers with different alkyl molecular chain lengths directly attached to silicon were prepared at 160°C from 1-decene (C10), 1-dodecene (C12), 1-tetradecene (C14), 1-hexadecene (C16), and 1-octadecene (C18). These monolayers were characterized on the basis of water contact angle measurement, ellipsometry, X-ray reflectivity (XR), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), and grazing incidence X-ray diffraction (GIXD) to elucidate the effect of the molecular chain length on the molecular arrangement and packing density of the monolayers. Water contact angle and XPS measurements showed that C12, C14, and C16 monolayers have a comparably higher quality, while the quality of C10 and C18 monolayers is worse. GIXD revealed that the alkyl monolayers directly attached to the Si were all amorphously structured regardless of their alkyl chain length. The amorphous structure of the alkyl monolayers could be attributed to the rigid Si-C bonding, low quality of hydrogen-terminated silicon substrate, and/or low mobility of physisorbed molecules.