Use of Underpotentially Deposited Metals on Gold To Affect the Surface-Catalyzed Formation of Polymethylene Films
By Guo, Wenfeng & Jennings, G. Kane
Published in Langmuir
2002
Abstract
We report the use of underpotentially deposited metals of copper and silver to tailor the surface chemistry of gold and alter the kinetics and properties of polymethylene [-(CH2)n-, PM] films that are grown from the surface-catalyzed decomposition of diazomethane in ether. Kinetic measurements with a quartz crystal microbalance reveal that PM grows nearly linearly with time on gold modified by underpotential deposition (upd) of copper or silver at coverages (φupd) of 0.6, but the PM growth rate slows with time on unmodified gold. While submonolayer amounts of copper (φCu = 0.6 and 0.9) greatly enhance the growth of PM over that on unmodified gold, increasing the coverage of silver (φAg) above 0.6 dramatically inhibits PM film growth.