Andrew Rosenberger with Kathleen Kash

STM Study of Self Arranging Hexagonal Nano-lattices

Hexagonal lattices of Benzene rings doped with sulfonic acid groups attached to substituted biphenyl units are promising, new structures being produced by Macromolecular Science and Engineering. When deposited on surfaces, these molecules can form stacked hexagonal arrays with a hole size of 20 to 500 nm, which could have applications in fuel cells, water desalinization, and as thermoelectric materials. In order to ascertain the usefulness of these materials and proper synthesis techniques, the use of scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and an atomic force microscope (AFM) to analyze samples of these molecules deposited on surfaces is necessary. By determining the size, aggregation, and quality of shape of the molecule for various synthesis conditions, more can be learned about the properties and usefulness of these materials.