STM study of l-serine adsorption on Cu(0 0 1)

The adsorption of l-serine on Cu(0 0 1) surface at 310 K was studied by scanning tunneling microscope (STM). l-serine molecules on the Cu(0 0 1) initially formed a domain of thick lines with a 2 - 1 2 4 order structure along the [ 1 ¯ 3 0 ] direction on the terraces regardless of the coverage of serine. The thick lines were partly replaced by thin line along the [ 3 ¯ 1 0 ] direction, and completely disappeared in 2 h. It is considered that in these structures hydrogen bonds involved in hydroxymethyl group between adsorbates play some role in addition to intermolecular hydrogen bond between a hydrogen atom of amino group and an oxygen atom of carboxy group for alanine adsorption.