Template-stripped substrates with solvent-impermeable metal thin films

Template-stripped substrates provide on-demand access to clean, ultraflat gold surfaces, avoiding the need for laborious cleaning procedures or the use of expensive single-crystal electrodes. While these gold/adhesion layer/support sandwich structures are most conveniently prepared through the application of epoxy or optical adhesives, such composites exhibit instabilities in organic solvents that limit their wider application. Here we demonstrate that substrates with solvent-impermeable metal films can be used in previously problematic chemical environments after integration into a protective, custom-built (electrochemical) flow cell. We apply our methodology to probe different self-assembled monolayers, observing reproducible alkanethiol reductive desorption features, an exemplary redox response using 6-(ferrocenyl)-hexanethiol, and corroborate findings that cobalt-(II) bis-(terpyridine) assemblies exhibit a low coverage. This work significantly extends the utility of these substrates, relative to mechanically polished or freshly deposited alternatives, particularly for studies of systems involving adsorbed molecules whose properties are strongly influenced by the nanoscopic features of the metal-solution interface.