Synchrotron Studies on Copper-Phthalocyanine

Studies were carried out using synchrotron radiation to investigate the properties of Copper-Phthalocyanine (CuPc) on different substrates. CuPc's have a wide variety of applications from dye to chemical sensors. This study was done at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in conjunction with UC San Diego to investigate properties of CuPc's for application in sensors. Near edge x-ray fine structure spectroscopy (NEXAFS) was used to determine orientations of CuPc molecules on two different substrates (gold and sapphire). Orientations were found to be drastically different on the two substrates. On gold, CuPc molecules were found to be nearly prostrate and on sapphire they were found to be almost normal to the surface.