Voltammetric characterisation of the self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of benzyl- and dodecyl-mercapto tetra substituted metallophthalocyanines complexes

Voltammetric characterisations of cobalt, iron, manganese, nickel and zinc phthalocyanine complexes tetra substituted with benzyl- and dodecyl-mercapto ring substituents and immobilisation on gold electrodes via the self-assembling technique are presented. The self-assembled films are stable and showed blocking characteristics towards the following Faradaic processes; gold surface oxidation, under potential deposition of copper and solution redox chemistry of [Fe(H2O)63+]/[Fe(H2O)62+]. The solution chemistry of [Fe(CN)6]−3/[Fe(CN)6]−4 redox process was used to study the orientation of the CoPcs-SAMs and this revealed a possible deviation from flat orientation of the complexes on the gold electrodes when the SAM formation times were greater than 24 h. For SAM formation time at 24 and 48 h, CoTDMPc-SAM showed more inhibition of the [Fe(CN)6]−3/[Fe(CN)6]−4 redox process than the CoTBMPc-SAM counterpart, indicating more blocking characteristics of the dodecylmercapto ring substituents compared to the benzylmercapto counterpart. To avoid SAM desorption, the potential application should be limited to −0.2 to +0.8 V vs. Ag∣AgCl (NaCl, sat’d) in acidic and neutral pH.