Synthesis of dendron-protected porphyrin wires and preparation of a one-dimensional assembly of gold nanoparticles chemically linked to the pi-conjugated wires.

A one-dimensional assembly of gold nanoparticles chemically bonded to pi-conjugated porphyrin polymers was prepared on a chemically modified glass surface and on an undoped naturally oxidized silicon surface by the following methods: pi-conjugated porphyrin polymers were prepared by oxidative coupling of 5,15-diethynyl-10,20-bis-((4-dendron)phenyl) porphyrin (6), and its homologues (larger than 40-mer) were collected by analytical gel permeation chromatography (GPC). The porphyrin polymers (>40-mer) were deposited using the Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) method on substrate surfaces, which were then soaked in a solution of gold nanoparticles (2.7 +/- 0.8 nm) protected with t-dodecanethiol and 4-pyridineethanethiol. The topographical images of the surface observed by tapping mode atomic force microscopy (AFM) showed that the polymers could be dispersed on both substrates, with a height of 2.8 +/- 0.5 nm on the modified glass and 3.1 +/- 0.5 nm on silicon. The height clearly increased after soaking in the gold nanoparticle solution, to 5.3 +/- 0.5 nm on glass and 5.4 +/- 0.7 nm on silicon. The differences in height (2.5 nm on glass and 2.3 nm on silicon) corresponded to the diameter of the gold nanoparticles bonded to the porphyrin polymers. The distance between gold nanoparticles observed in scanning electron microscopic images was ca. 5 nm, indicating that they were bonded at every four or five porphyrin units.