Electrochemical Post-Self-Assembly Transformation of 4-Aminothiophenol Monolayers on Gold Electrodes

Abstract

Electrochemical oxidation of a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of 4-aminothiophenol on polycrystalline gold electrodes leads to a complex voltammetric behavior characterized by an initial irreversible oxidation at ∼+0.77 V versus SSCE (sodium saturated calomel electrode) and the formation of a pseudostable surface redox couple at +0.53 V. The oxidized form of this couple is hydrolyzed in acidic solutions to another redox pair with the formal redox potential of ∼+0.3 V. We show that the oxidation leads to a radical−radical coupling reaction between two adjacent aminothiophenol molecules, yielding an electrode surface modified with 4‘-mercapto-4-aminodiphenylamine, the thiol derivative of a head-to-tail aniline dimer. The oxidized form of the dimer, quinone diimine, undergoes hydrolysis to the corresponding quinone monoimine and, eventually, to the original surface-bound 4-aminothiophenol and benzoquinone. The mechanism of the monolayer oxidation reaction has been elucidated by a variety of electrochemical a...