Self-assembling Process of Alkanethiol Monolayers on Gold Surface via Underpotential Deposition1

It was demonstrated feasible that underpotential deposition (UPD) of copper on a monolayer-modified gold substrate can be used to determine the gold electrode area. The deposition and stripping of a Cu adlayer can take place reversibly and stably at a bared or a self-assembled monolayer modified gold electrode. The growth kinetics of decanethiol/Au was also investigated via Cu UPD. The difference between the assembling kinetics determined by UPD and that by quartz crystal microbalance measurements reveals the configuration transmutation of the assembled molecules from a disordered arrangement to an ordered arrangement during the self-assembling processes.