AVS 53rd International Symposium
    Surface Science Thursday Sessions
       Session SS-ThP

Paper SS-ThP14
Self-Assembled Monolayers as Templates to Control Electrochemical Metal Deposition

Thursday, November 16, 2006, 5:30 pm, Room 3rd Floor Lobby

Session: Surface Science Poster Session
Presenter: M. Buck, University of StAndrews, UK
Authors: C. Shen, University of StAndrews, UK
M. Buck, University of StAndrews, UK
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Tailoring electrode activity by self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiols is the basis of a promising scheme to generate electrode structures. It consists of a cycle which involves SAM directed electrochemical deposition of a metal pattern and subsequent transfer to an insulating substrate.@footnote 1@ The process relies on a favourable combination of properties of SAMs, i.e., the possibility to control both adhesion and interfacial charge transfer. With the availability of techniques to pattern SAMs on length scales down to nanometers the process offers the perspective to generate small scale electrode structures in a very simple way. However, with increasingly smaller dimensions of patterns the control of structures and properties of SAMs and electrochemical metal deposition becomes increasingly demanding. Some of the key challenges are the exact control of metal nucleation on a SAM modified electrode and the minimisation of defects in those types of SAMs which serve to suppress metal deposition. We report on our studies of alkane thiols and @omega@-(4'-methyl-biphenyl-4-yl)-alkane thiols which, using electrochemical characterisation and scanning tunneling microscopy, show how variations in the SAM structure affects metal nucleation and that a non-equilibrium annealing process substantially improves the passivating properties of thiol SAMs. @FootnoteText@ @footnote 1@ I. Thom, G. Haehner, and M. Buck, Appl. Phys. Lett. 87, 024101 (2005).