Investigation of the adsorption properties of cyclic C6 molecules on h-BN/Rh(111) surface, efforts to cover the boron nitride nanomesh by graphene

The 2D atomic structure of h-BN would be an excellent dielectric layer to complement graphene electronics. When grown sequentially on metal substrates to create GR/h-BN/metal sandwich structures, these nanomaterials can be used in various applications. To this end, in this project we studied the adsorption and dissociation of cyclohexene and benzene on clean and h-BN covered Rh(111) surfaces at low and at high temperatures. Although we observed that both molecules adsorb on the h-BN/Rh(111) surface at 160 K, there is only a weak interaction between these molecules and h-BN. Moreover, h-BN proved to be completely inert to the split of cyclohexene and benzene after low temperature exposures. In our high temperature experiments, we tested the stability of h-BN towards oxygen, hydrogen and we also followed the effects of high exposure adsorption of the C6 molecules on the nanomesh. We observed a different behavior following the decomposition of the two hydrocarbon species. In one case we developed a graphene-like carbon structure in parallel with BN, while in the other process the carbon layer formed on top of the surface of h-BN/Rh(111). Our results were evidenced by Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), High Resolution Electron Energy Loss Spectroscopy (HREELS) and Mass Spectrometry (MS).