| Summary: | Modification of planar graphitic carbon surfaces by the attachment of molecular films has been investigated in this work. Molecular layers have been grafted to glassy carbon (GC) and pyrolyzed photoresist film (PPF) by employing a range of techniques, which involved electrochemically and photochemically assisted procedures. Modification methods involve the electrochemical reduction of aryldiazonium salt, electrochemical oxidation of arylcarboxylate and photolysis of alkene, alkyne and azide on carbon surfaces. For these methods, it is proposed that reactive species are generated by the procedures, which leads to the grafting of modifiers to the carbon surfaces. A selection of molecular species was grafted to GC and PPF by these method containing different terminal R-functional groups that include —COOH, -NO₂, -NH₂, and —NCS. The grafted R-functional groups permit for further chemical reactions on the surface. Electrochemically and photochemically grafted films were examined with a combination of water contact angle measurements, cyclic voltammetry, X-ray electron spectroscopy XPS, optical microscopy, scanning electron microscopy SEM and atomic force microscopy AFM. Film properties such as surface concentration, film thickness, wettability, chemical composition and reactivity were characterized by the above mentioned techniques. Films electrochemically prepared from aryldiazonium salts and arylcarboxylates, under the conditions applied in this work, formed loosely packed multilayers with typical film thicknesses of les than 5 nm. Photochemically grafted films prepared from alkenes and azides, in general, formed loosely packed monolayers with film thicknesses of less than 2 nm. Loosely packed multilayers were also prepared from alkene and alkyne by photochemical procedures. ii Chemical reactions on grafted films were demonstrated and analyzed by a combination of the above mentioned characterization techniques. In particular, the reduction of nitrophenyl (NP)films, amine-coupling reactions, photoactivation of grafted films with oxalyl chloride and electrostatic assembly of anionic gold nanoparticles were investigated. Selected chemical reactions permitted identification and evaluation of the grafted layers, and demonstrated the ability to control the immobilization of chemical species. Microscale chemical patterning of two different types of modifiers on carbon surfaces was demonstrated using photolithographical techniques that utilized photochemical reactions with azides. Patterns of line-arrays with line widths of hundreds of micrometers to 10 µm were formed.
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