Dative bonding, adsorption energy

In order to understand why the activation energies differ between the two pathways, Mui et al. examined the transition state geometries [279]. They found that as electron density is donated from the amine lone pair to the down silicon atom upon adsorption into the precursor state, the up Si atom in the dimer becomes electron rich. At this stage, the dative bonded precursor can be described as a quaternary ammonium ion. The N—H dissociation pathway can thus be interpreted as the transfer of a proton from the ammonium ion to the electron-rich up Si atom through a Lewis acid-base reaction. In the transition state for this proton transfer, the N—H and Si—H... 

Mui et al.36 report a comparative experimental - theoretical study of amines on both the Si(001)-(2x 1) and the Ge(001)-(2x 1) surface. Both substrates were modeled by X9H12 (X = Si, Ge) clusters, utilizing DFT at the BLYP/6-31G(d) level of theory. For both, the Si and the Ge substrate, formation of a X-N dative bond (X = Si, Ge) is the initial step of the reaction between the considered amine species and the semiconductor surface. Flowever, while primary and secondary amines display N-H dissociation when attached to Si(001)-(2 x 1), no such trend is observed for the Ge counterpart of this system. This deviating behavior may be understood in terms of the energy barrier that separates the physisorption from the chemisorption minimum, involving the cleavage of an H atom. For dimethylamine adsorption, this quantity turned out to be about 50% higher for the Ge than for the Si surface. The authors relate this characteristic difference between the two substrates to the different proton affinities of Si and Ge. 

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