Development of Self-Assembled Monolayers of Single-Walled Carbon Nanotubes Assisted Cysteamine on Gold Electrodes

A highly organized self-aligned perpendicular self-assembled monolayers (SAM) by Single-walled carbon nano-tube (SWCNT) assisted Cysteamine (2-Aminoethanethiol, AET) were fabricated on gold single crystal substrates. The fabricated nano-surfaces were investigated specially using FT-IR, cyclic voltammetry (CV), Raman spectroscopy, electrochemical quartz crystal microbalance (EQCM), and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The SWCNTs were cut into short pipes by chemical oxidation and then thiol-derivatized at the open ends. The perpendicular aggregation of SWCNT-AET on chemically polished Au(111) substrates was fabricated by their spontaneous chemical bonding between carboxyl derivatized SWCNT-COOH and AET SAM on Au(1 11), via peptide bonds, or directly by synthesized SWCNT-AET composites. Raman spectroscopy and AFM surface images clearly revealed that the SWCNT-AET (dia. 15-42 nm) has been perpendicular organized on gold substrates, forming a SAM with a perpendicular orientation.