Morphological characterization of metallic corrole molecules and reduced graphene oxide adsorbed on au(111) and HOPG by scanning tunneling microscopy

The main purpose of this work is to study the corrole derivatives; this macrocycle has recently revealed an impressive variety of catalytic properties that have been exploited in natural and artificial systems. This work is devoted to the realization of thin corrole films onto the solid substrates with different techniques. It will be fundamental to characterize the films grown on different substrates and in different environments. Corrole molecular films on surfaces are investigated using the surface characterization techniques like Scanning Probe Microscopy Techniques (SPM): Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM) at University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Rome, Italy), Fluorescence Lifetime Microscopy at IIT (Genova, Italy), UV-Visible Spectroscopy at University of Rome “Tor Vergata” (Rome, Italy) and X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS) at CNR-ISMN (Monterotondo Stazione, Rome, Italy). By using these types of surface techniques, it is possible to obtain information on morphology, microstructure of the deposited corrole molecules at molecular level, roughness, life time of the molecules deposited, order of interactions and the material chemical composition. Unlike many other surface characterization techniques, STM and AFM techniques can be operated under different conditions such as air, liquid and vacuum for real-space images of corrole molecules on an electrically conductive surfaces like Au(111) and HOPG with subnanometre scale resolution. This work can be subdivided into three topics: (i) Understanding the surface interactions of Reduced Graphene Oxide (RGO) with a water soluble corrole molecule on gold film deposited on borosilicate glass. (ii) Thin layers of Phosphorus-Corrole deposited onto single crystal Au(111) surface. We will show that the addition of an intermediate layer of RGO allows a better control of corrole aggregation. (iii) Very interesting self-organization of corrole molecules on freshly stripped HOPG surface is revealed.