A versatile synthetic strategy for nanoporous gold-organic hybrid materials for electrochemistry and photocatalysis

Nanoporous gold (npAu) was employed as high surface area substrate for immobilization of redox- and photooxidative-active organic molecules. A two-step synthetic routine is demonstrated as a versatile and robust method for immobilization of various molecules. First, self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiols containing an azide moiety were prepared on npAu substrates. Then, alkyne-modified ferrocene, tetrathiafulvalene, and zinc(II)phthalocyanine derivatives were covalently bound via the click reaction to this linker. Following the provided synthetic procedures high performance composite materials are generated for electrochemistry and photochemistry. The robust bonding between the organic functional group and the gold support provides stability even under strongly oxidizing conditions (applied potential or singlet oxygen).

Graphical abstractDownload high-res image (183KB)Download full-size imageA versatile synthetic strategy generating high performance gold-organic hybrid materials.