Self-assembled monolayers enhancing stability

Li, J. H., Shen, Y. R, Zhang, Y. J., and Liu, Y. (2005). Room-temperature ionic iiquids as media to enhance the electrochemical stability of self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols on gold electrodes. Chem. Commun., pp. 360-362. 

Cortfes, E., A. A. Rubert, G. Benitez, P. Carro, M. E. Vela, and R. C. Salvarezza. Enhanced stability of thiolate self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on nanostructured gold substrates. Langmuir 25, 2009 5661-5666. 

The C-C bond formed through this process is very stable compared to say a gold-thiol bond. It can resist temperatures up to 700 K without being lost from the surface [42] and is stable in a wide potential window. A further advantage over other common surface modification techniques (e.g., self-assembly of silane monolayers on oxide) is that the process is quite fast, deposition times are usually on the order of 10 s. In contrast to the enhanced stability, formation of these layers on electrode surfaces is less controlled than for the alkanethiol system. In addition, not all the radicals generated participate in the formation of C-C bonds. It varies based on the surface condition and the substituent in the para position of... 

---