Effects of concentration and temperature on the formation process of decanethiol self-assembled monolayer on Au(1 1 1) followed by electrochemical reductive desorption

The formation process of self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of decanethiol (C10SH) on Au(1 1 1) single crystal electrode has been investigated for wide range of C10SH concentration (0.1–500 μM) and temperature (253–298 K). The amount and quality of C10SH SAM were determined from area and position, respectively, of reductive desorption peak of the SAM modified Au(1 1 1) electrode measured in 0.5 M KOH aqueous solution. The kinetic analysis indicates that SAM formation proceeded by two steps, diffusion-limited physisorption followed by chemisorption.