Electro-oxidative nanopatterning of silane monolayers on boron-doped diamond electrodes

Sascha E. Pust (1) , Sabine Szunerits (2, 3, 4) , Rabah Boukherroub (2, 3) , Gunther Wittstock (1)

1 ICBM - Institute for Chemistry and Biology of the Marine Environment
2 IRI - Institut de Recherche Interdisciplinaire [Villeneuve d'Ascq]
3 IEMN - Institut d’Électronique, de Microélectronique et de Nanotechnologie - UMR 8520
4 LEPMI - Laboratoire d'Electrochimie et de Physico-chimie des Matériaux et des Interfaces

Oxidized boron-doped diamond (BDD) electrodes were coated with a monolayer of n-octadecyltrichlorosilane as well as of other silanes. Scanning force microscopy was applied to pattern these monolayers, utilizing doped diamond-coated conductive probes. Patterns were generated on the nanometer scale, and conditions for the patterning process were quantified with regard to humidity and potential bias. It was observed that a sample bias of 3-3.5 V and a relative humidity > 70% are necessary to generate reproducible and stable patterns. At potentials and relative humidities below these values, no or incomplete removal of the monolayer occurred. The results show that electro-oxidative patterning is an expedient way for the generation of nanostructures on chemically modified BDD.

Domaines: Matériaux

Sascha E. Pust, Sabine Szunerits, Rabah Boukherroub, Gunther Wittstock. Electro-oxidative nanopatterning of silane monolayers on boron-doped diamond electrodes. Nanotechnology, 2009, 20 (7), p. 075302(12 p.). ⟨10.1088/0957-4484/20/7/075302⟩. ⟨hal-00365441⟩