Langmuir, Vol.20, No.10, 4147-4154, 2004
Electrochemical characteristics of ferrocenecarboxylate-coupled aminoundecylthiol self-assembled monolayers
The electrochemical characteristics of the modified electrodes with ferrocenecarboxylate-coupled aminoundecylthiol monolayers prepared in two sequential steps were studied. The self-assembled monolayer (SAM) was prepared through the covalent attachment of ferrocenecarboxylate in an activation solution containing N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethylearbodiimide coupling agent to aminoundecylthiol SAMs formed on a substrate. In the ferrocenecarboxylate-coupled aminoundecylthiol monolayers, the ferrocene moieties were expected to be packed regularly with enhanced ordering compared with those in the FcCOO-(CH2)(11)SH monolayer. As the ferrocene coverage increases, the formal potential for the ferrocene-ferricenium (Fc/Fc(+)) couple shifts to the positive potential and the full width at half-maximum (DeltaE(fwhm)) increases also. The maximum coverage is found to be about 3 x 10(-10) Mol cm(-2), which is considered to be a value obtained from a well-ordered ferrocene-tethered SAM. As for the mass change, the increase in ferrocene coverage caused the enhancement in ion association between the ferricenium cations and perchlorate anions resulting in a mass increase upon oxidation; however, the mass change per mole electron decreases. The results obtained from the ferrocenecarboxylate-coupled aminoundecylthiol monolayers were explained to be due to the well-ordered packing with regular spacing compared with those of the FcCOO-(CH2)(11)SH monolayer.