Noncovalent assembly of ferrocene on modified gold surfaces mediated by uracil–adenine base pairs

Redox-active ferrocene was assembled on gold surfaces through the hydrogen bonding interactions between adenine-substituted ferrocene and a uracil-terminated organothiol monolayer. The surface coverage of ferrocene Γ could be varied from ca. 4 × 10− 11 to 2.0 × 10− 10 mol cm− 2 by diluting the thiol-modified uracil derivative with inert 1-octanethiol. A decrease in the apparent electron transfer rate constant for ferrocene, kapp, from ca. 50 to 10 s− 1 was observed upon increasing Γ.