Electronic communication between immobilized ferrocenyl-terminated dendrimers

Redox-active ferrocenyl-terminated dendrimers have been used to build robust and active interfaces in which the inherent properties of the dendrimers are preserved. The procedure is based on the preparation of a polyarylcarboxylate layer through the controlled reduction of aryldiazonium salts followed by strong adsorption of the dendrimers on the insulating layer. Scanning electrochemical microscopy was used to probe the transport properties as lateral charge diffusion. The experiments demonstrate that charge-transfer communication between the dendrimers inside the layer is fast and efficient, depending on the dendrimer generation.