Monitoring the electrochemical transformation of an azobenzene-terminated alkanethiolate monolayer at gold by chemical force microscopy

• Main Authors: Wu, Zhongyun, Dong, Dong, Zhang, Hua, He, Hui-Xin, Liu, Zhong-Fan
• Other Authors: School of Materials Science & Engineering
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science::Chemistry::Crystallography::Physical properties of crystals
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/97331; http://hdl.handle.net/10220/10524
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Chemical Force Microscopy (CFM) was used to study the electrochemical behavior of azobenzene-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Both the gold-coated AFM tip and the gold-coated silicon substrate were modified with a 4-((N-(2′-mercapto-ethyl)-amino) carbonyl) azobenzene monolayer. For such a system, only when the reduction/oxidation reaction of azobenzene group occurs, the adhesion force between the tip and sample shows a drastic change, demonstrating the ability of CFM in monitoring the electrochemical transformation of an azobenzene group.