Preparation of SAMs
Metal substrates for use in SAMs can be produced through physical vapor deposition techniques, electrodeposition or electroless deposition. Thiol or selenium SAMs produced by adsorption from solution are typically made by immersing a substrate into a dilute solution of alkane thiol in ethanol, though many different solvents can be used besides use of pure liquids. While SAMs are often allowed to form over 12 to 72 hours at room temperature, SAMs of alkanethiolates form within minutes. Special attention is essential in some cases, such as that of dithiol SAMs to avoid problems due to oxidation or photoinduced processes, which can affect terminal groups and lead to disorder and multilayer formation. In this case appropriate choice of solvents, their degassing by inert gasses and preparation in the absence of light is crucial and allows formation of "standing up" SAMs with free –SH groups. Self-assembled monolayers can also be adsorbed from the vapor phase. In some cases when obtaining an ordered assembly is difficult or when different density phases need to be obtained substitutional self-assembly is used. Here one first forms the SAM of a given type of molecules, which give rise to ordered assembly and then a second assembly phase is performed (e.g. by immersion into a different solution). This method has also been used to give information on relative binding strengths of SAMs with different head groups and more generally on self-assembly characteristics.
Read more about this topic: Self-assembled Monolayer
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“With memory set smarting like a reopened wound, a man’s past is not simply a dead history, an outworn preparation of the present: it is not a repented error shaken loose from the life: it is a still quivering part of himself, bringing shudders and bitter flavours and the tinglings of a merited shame.”
—George Eliot [Mary Ann (or Marian)