Time-of-Flight-Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry and Cyclic Voltammetry Studies of Self-Assembly of Dodecanethiol on a Nanoporous Gold Surface

Abstract

Preparation of a nanoporous gold surface by dealloying (etching) of a 585 gold plate (58.5% Au, 30% Ag, and 11.5% non-noble metals) was studied by applying acidic and thermal treatment of the gold plate. The gold plate surface was studied before and after the etching process using different analytical techniques like field emission scanning electron microscope (FE-SEM) with an energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analyzer (EDX), cyclic voltammetry (CV), and time-of-flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). CV analysis of the gold surface has shown that overnight etching with warm nitric acid increases the surface area 20 times higher than before etching. FE-SEM analysis has shown that a nanoporous gold surface with pore diameter ≤100 nm was obtained. SIMS depth profile analysis and EDX analysis have shown that the nanoporous gold surface was obtained as a result of removing the silver and copper from the first layers of the plate. The nanoporous gold surface was used as a substrate for self-assembly of dodecanethiol and has shown a higher extraction efficiency than the unetched gold alloy.