New combinatorial approach for the investigation of kinetics and temperature dependence of surface reactions in thin organic films

In this paper we present a new, simple, and reproducible method for the rapid determination of the temperature dependence of solution phase surface reactions of organic thin films on solid supports. Instead of estimating the extent of reaction for many separate samples for many different temperatures sequentially, we exploit in our new high throughput combinatorial approach surface reactions carried out under a thermal gradient followed by position-resolved contact angle (CA) measurements. The reaction kinetics, activation energies, and entropies are, thus, accessible on the basis of measurements on a very limited set of samples that differ in reaction times. The kinetics and temperature dependence of surface reactions of the previously studied alkaline hydrolysis of 11,11'-dithiobis(N-hydroxysuccinimidylundecanoate) (NHS-C10) self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold, as well as the ester hydrolysis in SAMs of the novel disulfide 11,11-dithiobis(tert-butylundecanoate) (t-Bu-C10), were investigated in detail using the conventional sequential and the new combinatorial approach. The reaction kinetics, corresponding apparent rate constants k, and activation energies Ea, as well as activation entropies deltaS double dagger, determined according to both approaches agree well with each other to within the experimental error. Hence, these parameters can be quantitatively determined using the described combinatorial approach. A comparison of the reactions of the two model systems indicated that the transition state is tighter for the acid-catalyzed ester hydrolysis in SAMs of the novel disulfide t-Bu-C10 compared to the hydrolysis of the ester groups in SAMs of NHS-C10 on gold.