ABSTRACT
Self-assembled monolayers belong to the most fascinating creations of nature: the procedure of stimulating the growth of self-assembled monolayers holds a lot in common with the growth of 3-dimensional crystals. A self-assembled monolayer is so to speak a condensation of identical units (or two or three kinds of units of the same type) into a two-dimensional crystal (although, unordered self-assembled monolayers exist as well). Largely built of domains (areas of a single structure or conformation of the assembling unit), the facets of self-assembled monolayers are manifold, ranging from atomic layers to assembled proteins, from structure that can rearrange to structural or conformational segregation in domains. A wide variety of applications exists: sensor surfaces, solar cells, (heterogeneous) catalysis, molecular electronics, surface coatings, …. Quoting Jean-Marie Lehn on self-processes (in three dimensions): “Understanding, inducing, and directing self processes is key to unraveling the progressive emergence of complex matter”.[1] Creating self-assembled monolayers forms a platform for applying, among others, modern scanning probe techniques to the species of interest, which in turn leads to a deeper understanding of supermolecules and the molecular interactions involved. The research of self-assembled monolayers is therefore inherently connected with the field of supramolecular chemistry.
