| Abstract: | Monolayers formed from aromatic compounds have many potential applications, for example in construction of bioelectronic elements having high efficiency of electron transfer. In this paper, the composition of monolayers formed on silver surfaces from mixtures of 4‐mercaptobenzoic acid (MBA) and four model (stable and easily available) aromatic thiols with strong base properties: 4,6‐diamino‐2‐mercaptopyrimidine (APY), 1H‐1,2,4‐triazole‐3‐thiol (HTR), 4‐methyl‐4H‐1,2,4‐triazole‐3‐thiol (MTR) and 3‐amino‐1,2,4‐triazole‐5‐thiol (ATR), were determined from surface‐enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) measurements. Our investigations showed that among studied aromatic bases, APY is the most promising candidate for the formation of mixed monolayers with MBA. In the whole pH range studied (2–12.5), mixed MBA + APY monolayers with similar surface concentration of both components are formed during the adsorption from the 0.5 mM MBA + 0.5 mM APY aqueous solution. Desorption of MBA and APY from the mixed monolayer is, however, significantly different. During immersion in water, surface concentration of APY decreases significantly faster than MBA (a significant part of the adsorbed MBA molecules is present on the silver surface even after 2 h of soaking in water). Presence of chlorides, bovine serum albumin or laccase in the surrounding solution does not observably influence the structure of MBA + APY monolayers. The properties of monolayers formed from MBA and substituted triazoles were found to be significantly different than those of MBA + APY monolayers. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
