Steric effects and chirality in the adsorption of glycine and phenylglycine on Cu(110)

摘要

Glycine adsorbed on Cu(110) forms ( marginally) heterochiral ( 3 x 2) reconstructed overlayers, in contrast to phenylglycine preferring homochiral adsorption. Density-functional theory within generalized gradient approximation is used to identify the origin of this difference. We find the restriction of the molecular relaxation imposed by the phenyl group in conjunction with intermolecular hydrogen bonds to be responsible.