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Ultralow effective work function surfaces using diamondoid monolayers.

Authors :
Narasimha KT
Ge C
Fabbri JD
Clay W
Tkachenko BA
Fokin AA
Schreiner PR
Dahl JE
Carlson RM
Shen ZX
Melosh NA
Source :
Nature nanotechnology [Nat Nanotechnol] 2016 Mar; Vol. 11 (3), pp. 267-72. Date of Electronic Publication: 2015 Dec 07.
Publication Year :
2016

Abstract

Electron emission is critical for a host of modern fabrication and analysis applications including mass spectrometry, electron imaging and nanopatterning. Here, we report that monolayers of diamondoids effectively confer dramatically enhanced field emission properties to metal surfaces. We attribute the improved emission to a significant reduction of the work function rather than a geometric enhancement. This effect depends on the particular diamondoid isomer, with [121]tetramantane-2-thiol reducing gold's work function from ∼ 5.1 eV to 1.60 ± 0.3 eV, corresponding to an increase in current by a factor of over 13,000. This reduction in work function is the largest reported for any organic species and also the largest for any air-stable compound. This effect was not observed for sp(3)-hybridized alkanes, nor for smaller diamondoid molecules. The magnitude of the enhancement, molecule specificity and elimination of gold metal rearrangement precludes geometric factors as the dominant contribution. Instead, we attribute this effect to the stable radical cation of diamondoids. Our computed enhancement due to a positively charged radical cation was in agreement with the measured work functions to within ± 0.3 eV, suggesting a new paradigm for low-work-function coatings based on the design of nanoparticles with stable radical cations.

Details

Language :
English
ISSN :
1748-3395
Volume :
11
Issue :
3
Database :
MEDLINE
Journal :
Nature nanotechnology
Publication Type :
Academic Journal
Accession number :
26641529
Full Text :
https://doi.org/10.1038/nnano.2015.277