Octanethiol
Octanethiol is an example of aliphatic compound having a thiol group (S-H group) at one end. In particular, hydrocarbon chains terminated with a thiol group are interesting molecules to illustrate self-assembly. They can be adsorbed via their S-H group on a gold surface, where they form well-ordered molecular structures. In the particular example illustrated here, the hydrocarbon chain is octane (C8H18) in which the S-H group is substituted for a terminal H atom and lies in the plane defined by the zigzag chain of C (green balls). The length of the C-S bond is 0.185 nm, to be compared with the C-C distance of 0.153 nm.
