Electrochemistry and Self-Assembled Monolayers

It was found that these dopants had a significant effect on the structure and the mechanical stabilities of the obtained opaline films. With selection of suitable dopants, PANI composite inverse opals could be fabricated with very high quality. The obtained films remained electroactive in buffer solutions of neutral pH. Together with their huge surface area, they would be ideal candidates for biosensing applications. Such macroporous structures were used as electro catalysts for the oxidation of reduced / -nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH]. This showed that the electrocatalytic efficiency of the inverse opline film was much higher than that of an unpatterned film. 

Electron transfer cannot occur in blocking films. However, for very thin self-assembled monolayers (SAMs] of alkane thiols or oxide films, electrons can tunnel through the film and cause Faradaic reactions. Monolayer of alkane thiols can form spontaneously ordered adlayers on substrate like Au(lll] due to a strong interaction between the sulphur of the thiol and the gold substrate. These SAMs have received tremendous attention in recent years [209,210]. 

Electrochemical deposition onto self-assembled monolayers gives new insights into nanofabrication [211]. Pattern transfer 

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