Adsorption behaviors of functional poly(amido amine) dendrimers with an azacrown core and long alkyl chain spacers were investigated on gold and self-assembled monolayer (SAM) by means of time course attenuated total reflection-surface enhanced infrared absorption and surface plasmon resonance spectroscopies. While 1.5th and 2.5th generation (G 1.5 and G2.5) ester-terminated dendrimers were slightly adsorbed on all substrates examined, the adsorption of G2 amine-terminated dendrimer increased in the order dodecanethiol SAM < bare gold < 3-mercaptopropionic acid (MPA) SAM. The time course results also revealed that the G2 dendrimer displayed the steep increase of adsorption on the bare gold, followed by the slight progress of adsorption. G2 dendrimers adsorbed on MPA SAM involved their Subsequent conformational rearrangement, while the adsorption equilibrium was quickly attained for G3 dendrimer on the MPA SAM. It was supported that G3 dendrimer was adsorbed with the perpendicularly extended Structure on the MPA SAM substrate. and G2 dendrimer varied its conformation from the globular structure to the extended one perpendicular to the substrate. (c) 2005 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.