A structural investigation of the interaction of oxalic acid with Cu(110)

The interaction of oxalic acid with the Cu(110) surface has been investigated by a combination of scanning tunnelling microscopy (STM), low energy electron diffraction (LEED), soft X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (SXPS), near-edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) and scanned-energy mode photoelectron diffraction (PhD), and density functional theory (DFT). O 1s SXPS and O K-edge NEXAFS show that at high coverages a singly deprotonated monooxalate is formed with its molecular plane perpendicular to the surface and lying in the [11¯0] azimuth, while at low coverage a doubly-deprotonated dioxalate is formed with its molecular plane parallel to the surface. STM, LEED and SXPS show the dioxalate to form a (3 × 2) ordered phase with a coverage of 1/6 ML. O 1s PhD modulation spectra for the monooxalate phase are found to be simulated by a geometry in which the carboxylate O atoms occupy near-atop sites on nearest-neighbour surface Cu atoms in [11¯0] rows, with a Cu–O bondlength of 2.00 ± 0.04 Å. STM images of the (3 × 2) phase show some centred molecules attributed to adsorption on second-layer Cu atoms below missing [001] rows of surface Cu atoms, while DFT calculations show adsorption on a (3 × 2) missing row surface (with every third [001] Cu surface row removed) is favoured over adsorption on the unreconstructed surface. O 1s PhD data from dioxalate is best fitted by a structure similar to that found by DFT to have the lowest energy, although there are some significant differences in intramolecular bondlengths.