Monolayer formation of luminescent germanium nanoparticles on silica surface in aqueous buffer solution

The present paper reports monolayer formation of germanium nanoparticles (Ge NPs) on silica substrate. The NPs were prepared by hydride reduction of GeCl4, which is encapsulated with an inverse micelle of dimethyldioctylammonium bromide, with lithium aluminum hydride, and subsequent hydrogermylation of allylamine in the presence of platinum catalyst. The resultant NPs showed the blue photoluminescence property. Due to the terminal amine, the NPs were soluble highly in aqueous buffer solution. To fabricate a monolayer of Ge NPs, the chemical reactivity of the NPs was studied using a multi-functional microarray in which different kinds of siloxane monolayers were periodically aligned on a silica substrate. We observed using fluorescence microscope whether the terminal amines of the NPs recognize the specific monolayers in the microarray. In terms of fluorescence observation, the entire surface of the monolayer-covered microsize-domains emits uniformly the blue light. This suggests a high degree of coverage of the luminescent NPs covering over the monolayer regions in the microarray, and implies the non-occurrence of quenching through energy transfer between adjacent NPs.