Self-Assembly of (S)-Glutamic Acid on Ag(100): A Combined LT-STM and Ab Initio Investigation

Self-assembly of organic molecules at metal surfaces is of greatest importance in nanoscience; in fact, it opens new perspectives in the field of molecular electronics and in the study of biocompatible materials. Combining an experimental low-temperature scanning tunneling microscopy investigation with ab initio calculations, we succeeded to describe in detail (S)-glutamic acid adsorption on Ag(100) at T = 350 K. We find that (S)-glutamic acid organizes in squared structure and, at variance with the majority of cases reported in literature, it adsorbs in the neutral form, 4.6 angstrom above the surface plane. The interaction with the poorly reactive A V. substrate is only due to weak van der Waals forces, while H-bonds between carboxyl groups and the formation of a OCOH-OCOH-OCOH-OCOH cycle at the vertex of the squares are the main responsible for the self-assembly