Base‐Assisted Electrografting of Aromatic Amines

Corentin Anex , Ewen Touzé (1) , Léonard Curet , Frédéric Gohier (1) , Charles Cougnon (1)

1 MOLTECH-Anjou

Contrary to aliphatic amines, aromatic amines have received less attention for the surface modification by oxidation due to the low acidity of their cation radicals. To overcome this limitation, bases are often added in solution to facilitate or make possible the grafting. However, there has only been a modest focus on their impact on the grafting efficiency. Here, the anodic behavior of a series of para-substituted anilines was investigated in the presence of different bases to address this issue. From complete sets of Brønsted acidity/basicity data and H-bond acidity/basicity factors for both parasubstituted anilines and bases, a grafting efficiency index was proposed as a practical tool to choose the most suitable base for the grafting. As a proof-of-concept for base-assisted grafting of aromatic amines, two aniline/base systems were tested to modify carbon surfaces at lower potential, compared to the modification achieved from pure aniline solutions.

Domaines: Chimie

Corentin Anex, Ewen Touzé, Léonard Curet, Frédéric Gohier, Charles Cougnon. Base‐Assisted Electrografting of Aromatic Amines. ChemElectroChem, 2019, 6 (19), pp.4963-4969. ⟨10.1002/celc.201900979⟩. ⟨hal-02395263⟩