Gold-titania interface toughening and thermal conductance enhancement using an organophosphonate nanolayer
- Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Troy, New York 12180 (United States)
- Materials Science and Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, Connecticut 06269 (United States)
- Institut Charles Gerhardt Montpellier, UMR 5253 CNRS-UM2-ENSCM-UM1, Universite Montpellier 2, CC 1701, Place Eugene Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5 (France)
- Chemistry Department, Emory and Henry College, Emory, Virginia 24327 (United States)
We demonstrate that a mercaptan-terminated organophosphonate nanolayer at gold-titania interfaces can give rise to two- to three-fold enhancement in the interfacial fracture toughness and thermal conductance. Electron spectroscopy reveals that interfacial delamination occurs at the metal-molecule interface near the gold-sulfur bonds, consistent with density functional theory calculations of bond energies. Qualitative correlation between interfacial fracture toughness and bond energies suggest that organophosphonate nanolayers are resilient to humidity-induced degradation. These results, and the versatility of organophosphonates as surface functionalization agents for technologically relevant materials, unlock uncharted avenues for molecular engineering of interfaces in materials and devices for a variety of applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 22162943
- Journal Information:
- Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 102, Issue 20; Other Information: (c) 2013 AIP Publishing LLC; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0003-6951
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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