AVS 47th International Symposium
    Organic Films and Devices Wednesday Sessions
       Session OF-WeA

Paper OF-WeA9
Surface Stress of Self-Assembled Alkanethiols on Gold-Coated Cantilevers

Wednesday, October 4, 2000, 4:40 pm, Room 313

Session: Self-Assembled Monolayers: Electron Transfer and Film Properties
Presenter: M. Godin, McGill University, Canada
Authors: M. Godin, McGill University, Canada
P.J. Williams, Acadia University, Canada
V. Tabard-Cossa, McGill University, Canada
P. Grütter, McGill University, Canada
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The commercial availability of atomic force microscope (AFM) microcantilevers has made possible the development of new ultrasensitive techniques aimed at measuring nanoscale quantities such as mass, heat and surface stress. We have adapted standard gold-coated silicon nitride AFM cantilevers as a chemical sensor. During chemical sensing, the cantilever bends due to the surface stress associated with the adsorption of specific target molecules onto a single side of the cantilever, which has been coated with a receptive layer. We have used our cantilever sensor to measure the surface stress associated with the self-assembly of alkanethiols on gold-coated cantilevers. This surface stress is strongly associated with the structural organization of the self-assembled thiol monolayer, as well as molecular chain-length. We will discuss the importance of the quality of the gold receptive surface with respect to thiol monolayer formation, as well as the kinetics of vapor-phase self-assembly of alkanethiols onto gold.