Two-dimensional cysteine and cystine cluster networks on Au(111) disclosed by voltammetry and in situ scanning tunneling microscopy

Microscopic structures for molecular monolayers of L-cysteine and L-cystine assembled on Au(111) have been disclosed by employing electrochemistry and in situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM). High-resolution STM images show that the adlayers of both cyteine and cystine exhibit highly-ordered networklike clusters with (3 root 3 x 6)R30 degrees structure. By combining the surface coverage estimated from voltammetric data, each cluster is demonstrated to include six individual cysteine molecules or three cystine molecules. As a comparison, no cluster structure is observed for the 1-butanethiol adlayer prepared and examined under the same conditions as those for cysteine and cystine. This suggests that intermolecular and intramolecular hydrogen bonds among adsorbed cysteine or cystine molecules could be responsible for the origin of the cluster-network structures for the adlayers. Several models are proposed and used to explain the in situ STM observations in detail.