Room-temperature isolation of V(benzene)₂ sandwich clusters via soft-landing into n-alkanethiol self-assembled monolayers

The adsorption state and thermal stability of V(benzene)₂ sandwich clusters soft-landed onto a self-assembled monolayer of different chain-length n-alkanethiols (C_n-SAM, n -8, 12, 16, 18, and 22) were studied by means of infrared reflection absorption spectroscopy (IRAS) and temperature-programmed desorption (TPD). The IRAS measurement confirmed that V(benzene)₂ clusters are molecularly adsorbed and maintain a sandwich structure on all of the SAM substrates. In addition, the clusters supported on the SAM substrates are oriented with their molecular axes tilted 70-80° off the surface normal. An Arrhenius analysis of the TPD spectra reveals that the activation energy for the desorption of the supported clusters increases linearly with the chain length of the SAMs. For the longest chain C₂₂-SAM, the activation energy reaches ∼150 kJ/mol, and the thermal desorption of the supported clusters can be considerably suppressed near room temperature. The clear chain-length-dependent thermal stability of the supported clusters observed here can be explained well in terms of the cluster penetration into the SAM matrixes.