Deposition of laminar TiO2-based nanocomposites on a modified quartz crystal gold surface

The deposition of hybrid organic-inorganic nanocomposites of titanium dioxide--prepared by hydrolysis of titanium tretraisopropoxide modified through exchanging one of its ligands with a butinoxy-, octiloxy- or phenoxy-group--on a gold surface modified by a monolayer of decanethiol was studied using a Quartz Crystal Microbalance. The depositions, performed from a suspension in alcohol of the nanocomposites, consisting in titanium oxide bilayers hydrophobically functionalized, occurs by a spontaneous process 'layer by layer.' However the amount of deposited mass in a layer as well as the rates of deposition depend on the degree of aggregation of the nanocomposite in the suspension which is in turn determined by nature of the organic ligands.