Thiol anchoring and catalysis of gold nanoparticles at the liquid interface of thin-organic film-modified electrodes

The deposition of in-situ formed gold nanoparticles at the liquid/liquid (L/L) interface is studied by means of thin-organic-film-modified electrodes (TFE). The degree of ordering and aggregation of gold nanoparticles can be tuned by adding a lipophilic and hydrophilic thiol in the organic and aqueous phase, respectively. The ordered thiol-anchored gold nanoparticles exhibit pronounced catalytic effect toward electron-transfer reactions across the L/L interface.