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Updated: Aug 29, 2026

Creating Two-Dimensional Patterned Substrates for Protein and Cell Confinement
Published on: September 6, 2011
Directed, selective insertion of single molecules into patterned self-assembled monolayers of alkanethiols with
Xue-Mei Li1, Tommaso Auletta, Frank C J M van Veggel
1Laboratory of Supramolecular Chemistry and Technology, MESA+ Institute for Nanotechnology, University of Twente, P.O. Box 217, 7500 AE Enschede, The Netherlands.
Abstract:
Pd(ii) pincer adsorbate molecules (1) were inserted into self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of alkanethiols with different chain lengths (C(8) to C(18)) on annealed gold substrates. Their presence was brought to expression by reaction of with Au nanoclusters bearing phosphine moieties (2). The surface-confined Au nanoclusters were observed only on the shorter chain SAMs (C(8)SH to C(16)SH) and not on C(18)SH SAMs. This is attributed to the longer chain length of C(18)SH preventing the insertion of pincer molecules. Microcontact printing (microCP) with C(18)SH on unannealed gold substrates and the subsequent immersion of the substrates into C(8)SH, C(10)SH, C(12)SH, or C(16)SH solutions, yielded a series of patterned SAMs that have areas of thiols of different chain lengths. Insertion of 1 followed by expression using 2, or insertion of 3 showed inserted molecules only in the shorter chain SAM areas. The absolute particle densities in the former case were higher than on the corresponding homogeneous SAMs on annealed substrates, probably due to larger numbers of defects in the SAMs on unannealed substrates.
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