An IETS study of some selected tripodal adsorbates on plasma‐grown aluminium and magnesium oxides

Abstract

AbstractA study of the inelastic electron tunnelling (IET) spectra of tris(hydroxymethyl)ethane, tris(2‐hydroxyethyl)amine, and tris(hydroxymethyl)phosphine oxide, show that all three hydroxy groups for each of these adsorbed species are surface bound. From closer inspection of the spectra for tris(hydroxymethyl)ethane and tris(hydroxymethyl) phosphine oxide, a tripodal geometry at the surface involving interactions between the three functional groups and one cation is proposed. Whereas for tris(2‐hydroxyethyl)amine and tris(2‐aminoethyl)amine, owing to their additional structural flexibility, more than one surface adsorption site may be involved per adsorbed molecule. In the case of tris(2‐aminoethyl)amine, the IET spectra indicate that both amino group protonation and Lewis acid‐Lewis base interactions are involved in the binding of this species to both oxide surfaces.