Interaction of oxidized copper surfaces with alkanethiols in organic and aqueous solvents. the mechanism of Cu2O reduction

C. A. CALDERÓN; C. OJEDA; V. A. MACAGNO; P. PAREDES OLIVERA; E. M. PATRITO

AMER CHEMICAL SOC

Año: 2010 vol. 114 p. 3945 - 3945

blockquote class="svAbstract"> The interaction of 1-octanethiol, 1,8-octanedithiol, 1-hexadecanethiol, and 16-mercaptohexadecanoic acid with polycrystalline copper surfaces was investigated comparatively using forming solutions with polar (0.05 M NaOH solution) and apolar (n-hexane) solvents. The thiol layers were formed on the freshly chemically polished copper surface as well as on the anodically oxidized surface. The effects of the alkanethiol chain length and terminal group on the blocking properties of the surface were investigated. We show for the first time that compact monolayers and multilayers can be obtained from an alkaline forming solution. Copper oxides are completely reduced in the alkaline forming solution for all of the thiols investigated after an immersion time of 45 min. On the contrary, the presence of a surface oxide was always detected after the formation of the thiol layer in the n-hexane solution. The mechanism of Cu 2O r