Effects of metal coating on self-assembled monolayers on gold. 2. Copper on an oligo(phenylene-ethynylene) monolayer.

We report studies on the modifications induced by the evaporation of copper overlayers on a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of the oligo(phenylene-ethynyl) dithiol, 1-thio-4-[4'-[(4'-thio)phenylethynyl]-1'-ethynyl]-benzene (TTPEB). These SAMs were characterized after deposition from a tetrahydrofuran solution on polycrystalline gold substrates and after copper evaporation and its subsequent removal by nitric acid. Monolayers were studied via cyclic voltammetry (CV), UV-vis multiwavelength ellipsometry, external reflectance infrared (IR) spectroscopy, and ion scattering spectroscopy (ISS).