Silyl-SAMs

The synthesis of the fluorescent SAMs is depicted in Fig. 4.2 A three-step procedure is followed. First, an amino terminated monolayer is formed by silylation of the quartz slides and the silicon wafers with (A-[3-(trimethoxysilyl)propyl]ethylenediamine) (TPEDA). Subsequently, this layer is converted into a fluorescent-SAM by reaction with an amino reactive fluorescent probe. Then the residual amino groups (the steric hindrance renders impossible the reaction of every surface amino group with a fluoro-phore molecule) are reacted with a small molecule to form a binding group such as amide, urea, thiourea, or sulfonamide, yielding the sensitive fluorescent SAM. 

Over the last decade, a considerable number of reactions has been studied (11,35) (i) olefins oxidation (38,39), hydroboration, and halogenation (40) (ii) amines silylation (41,42), amidation (43), and imine formation (44) (iii) hydroxyl groups reaction with anhydrides (45), isocyanates (46), epichloro-hydrin and chlorosilanes (47) (iv) carboxylic acids formation of acid chlorides (48), mixed anhydrides (49) and activated esters (50) (v) carboxylic esters reduction and hydrolysis (51) (vi) aldehydes imine formation (52) (vii) epoxides reactions with amines (55), glycols (54) and carboxyl-terminated polymers (55). A list of all the major classes of reactions on SAMs plus relevant examples are discussed comprehensively elsewhere (//). The following sections will provide a more detailed look at reactions with some of the common functional SAMs, i.e hydroxyl and carboxyl terminated SAMs. 

Currently, these molecular systems are studies as SAMs on a metal surface. An additional method of preparing ordered monolayers of molecular devices is the use of Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) films. Therefore, a compound with hydrophilic and hydrophobic subunits with the central nitroaniline core similar to 70 was synthesized as in Scheme 3.40. n-Hexylbenzene was easily brominated on neutral alumina and coupled to TMSA followed by silyl removal and coupling to the nitroacetanilide core intermediate, 68, to afford 88. The methyl ester, intermediate 90, was synthesized by the coupling of methyl 4-ethynylbenzoate (89) to 88. The amine was unmasked and the methyl ester was saponified with lithium hydroxide to afford molecular scale device 91. Compound 91 is suitable for the formation of a LB film due to its hydrophilic carboxylic acid end-group and the hydrophobic n-hexyl end-group. 

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