INTERFACIAL INTERACTIONS OF OLIGOANILINES WITH SOLID SURFACES

Abstract

It is known that organic monolayers on solid surfaces can enable electronic properties that are absent in the bulk of the solid materials. Often, once the organic film come into the contact with a solid surface, the established electronic interaction at their interface remains undisturbed. However, using a redox-active organic monolayer creates the possibility for modulating the extent and the direction of the interfacial charge transfer, establishing a switch at the interface. The theme of this thesis is investigation of the interfacial interaction of different redox states of a molecular switch, phenyl-capped aniline tetramer (PCAT) with iron oxide and graphite surfaces and their potential application in electronic devices. The nucleation and growth of submonolayer films of different oxidation states of PCAT on iron oxide surface was studied. Using atomic force microscopy and scaling island size distribution method the surface diffusion parameters of these islands were evaluated. Using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Raman spectroscopy the changes in these organic monolayers before and after interaction with iron oxide were demonstrated. However, these techniques were unable to provide similar data from the solid surface side of the interface. Instead, we were able to demonstrate the changes in the iron oxide film as a result of interfacial charge transfer using electrical conductivity measurement techniques. Based on this information a microfluidic chemical sensor based on the interface of pencil film and PCAT for quantification of free chlorine in drinking water was constructed. Using XPS and UV-vis spectroscopy it was shown that the interaction the organic monolayer with sodium hypochlorite solution leads to the development of positive charges on the backbone of PCAT. This electrostatic charge can affect the charge transport in the pencil film causing the modulation of electrical conductivity of the film. The presented work demonstrates alternative pathways for the design of novel hybrid electronic devices based on thin molecular film and solid surfaces.