Octadecyl Mercaptan Sub-monolayers on Silver Electrodeposited on Gold Quartz Crystal Microbalance Electrodes

• Published in: Langmuir Vol. 13; no. 14; pp. 3781 - 3786
• Main Authors: Burgess, James D, Hawkridge, Fred M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Chemical Society 09.07.1997
• Subjects: Chemistry; Electrochemistry; Electrodeposition; Exact sciences and technology; General and physical chemistry; Study of interfaces; Self assembly; Monolayer; Gold; Thiol; Electrode production; Enzyme; Cytochrome-c oxidase; Lipids; Transition metal; Experimental study; Bilayer; Electrodes; Electrodeposition; Oxidoreductases; Electrochemical reaction; Modified material; Quartz microbalance
• ISSN: 0743-7463; 1520-5827
• DOI: 10.1021/la9700735

The objective of this work is to accurately and reproducibly control the amount of alkanethiol self-assembled onto the surface of a gold quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) electrode. This reaction is the first step in preparing bilayer membranes on gold electrodes that contain cytochrome c oxidase. In this work procedures for cleaning the surface of gold QCM electrodes, including use of an oxygen plasma, a UV surface cleaner, and aggressive chemical treatment of the surface, still led to rates of octadecyl mercaptan (OM) self-assembly that were highly irreproducible, varying over several orders of magnitude in time. Electrodeposition of a silver monolayer onto the surface of gold QCM electrodes affords a surface at which the OM self-assembly reaction can be easily controlled. Using the QCM to monitor the self-assembly reaction of OM on the silver-coated gold QCM electrode surface, a selected sub-monolayer coverage can be reliably prepared in about 10 min.