AVS 58th Annual International Symposium and Exhibition
    Electronic Materials and Processing Division Thursday Sessions
       Session EM-ThP

Paper EM-ThP23
Simple Methods to High Quality Self-Assembled Monolayers of Alkylsilanes on Oxides

Thursday, November 3, 2011, 6:00 pm, Room East Exhibit Hall

Session: Electronic Materials and Processing Poster Session
Presenter: Byron Gates, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Authors: B.D. Gates, Simon Fraser University, Canada
Y. Gong, Simon Fraser University, Canada
A. Liu, Simon Fraser University, Canada
H.W. Ng, Simon Fraser University, Canada
M. Wang, Simon Fraser University, Canada
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The interfacial properties of a material can be easily modified by modifying its surfaces with self-assembled monolayers. These single-molecule thick coatings can be used to prevent non-specific adsorption of biomolecules, protect the underlying material from chemical attack, serve as a masking layer to prevent or direct the deposition of a coating material, and reduce friction between two materials. Interest in the use of self-assembled monolayers continues to grow. The applications being pursued for these molecular coatings are increasingly interested in the robustness and uniformity of these films. An important aspect of their resilience is the density and size of defects within the monolayers, which can have a large role in their overall performance. One type of monolayer for which it is particularly challenging to achieve high quality coatings are those films based on the assembly of alkylsilane molecules. Often these coatings are pursued for the modification of oxidized surfaces, but form either a sub-monolayer or a multilayered film. A primary goal of the work that will be presented is to further optimize the conditions in which monochloro alkylsilane-based molecules are assembled into monolayers. Considerations for the development of these refined methods include the ease of scaling the technique to cover larger areas and the ability to avoid stringent requirements for environmental control during growth of the monolayer. Additional work is being pursued to identify and repair defects within the silane-based films. One approach that will be discussed uses solvent extraction techniques to remove adsorbed molecules, followed by further assembly of alkylsilane molecules onto the unprotected regions of these surfaces. The ‘repaired’ surfaces exhibit improved resistance to chemical attack. A key aspect of this work has been the development of new analytical methods for determining the density and size of the defects. These methods are used to also monitor the success of repairing the defects. The talk will cover these and other aspects of our progress towards developing simple methods that will produce high quality monolayers of alkylsilane-based molecules.