SELF ASSEMBLED MONOLAYERS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES GRAFTED ON GLASS SURFACES

Molecular self-assembled monolayers can be formed on SiO2 surfaces (glass, quartz, oxidized Si wafers...) thanks to the reaction of molecules of the (RO)3Si---X and Cl3Si---X type, with a bunch of straightforward wet syntheses.1a Superficial –X groups of the SAM can react with molecules bearing suitable –Y groups through high yield coupling reactions,1b forming covalent bonds and achieving SAM growth. When X= SH, the thiol terminated monolayers are also capable of anchoring metal NanoParticles displaying high affinity towards the thiolate fragment (metal = gold, silver, copper) as it has been already demonstrated.2 We have used both features of –SH terminated SAMs on glass surfaces to determine an efficient synthetic protocol for glass silanization with MercaptoPropylTrimethoxySilane (MPTS), capable of producing an high number of terminal –SH groups available to further interact with Silver NP and to obtain a dense monolayer of the latter on glass slides.