COMPARATIVE STUDY ON THE ADSORPTION PROCESSES OF ALKANETHIOL AND ALKANEDITHIOL ON GOLD

The kinetics of formation of self-assembled monolayers on gold generated by the adsorption of 1-octanethiol and 1,8-octanedithiol were explored by electrochemistry measurement. The time dependence of capacitance and surface coverage supported that the adsorption of thiols typically processed with a two-step adsorption consisted of a fast initial adsorption and a slowly following reorganization. From the function of surface coverage versus time, one could get rate constants of adsorption of thiols, and the adsorption process was demonstrated to follow a diffusion-controlled Langmuir model. A comparison of the adsorption rates for different concentration between 1-octanethiol and 1,8-octanedithiol revealed that their adsorption processes were almost identical and independent on the concentration, inferring that only one sulfur atom contributed to the self-assembly of dithiol molecule.