Self-assembled monolayers and electrostatically self-assembled multilayers of polyalkylviologens on sulfonate-modified gold and indium-tin-oxide electrodes

Stable and regular electrostatically self-assembled (ESA) multilayers are built on sulfonate-primed surfaces with PV3 and polysulfonates. From XPS analysis, the composition of the PVn/polysulfonate multilayers corresponds to a 1:1 ratio of polyanion and polycation charges, i.e., no extra non-polymeric ion is present, independently from the alkane chain length. The rate of electron transfer within the multilayers (diffusion coefficient = ca. 10−9 cm2 s−1) is higher than for analogous bulk materials.