Assembly and reactions of carboxylic acids on metal-passivated silicon

Thesis explores the self- assembly and reaction of molecules on surfaces. Initial focus was on understanding these molecular behaviours on metal surfaces by examining the chemical and electronic properties. Unfortunately, metal surfaces are unsuitable for electronic applications. Hence, subsequent focus was on transitioning the experiment to non-metallic and low-cost silicon surfaces. Silicon requires to be passivated with metal atom layers due to its high reactivity. Molecular behaviour was examined by varying the metal layer thickness. Metal layers with 20 atoms thickness mimics the bulk metal surfaces, thus provide an economical and practical alternative platform for the study of molecular dynamics