SELF-ASSEMBLED MONOLAYERS - RECENT DEVELOPMENTS AND APPLICATIONS

Recent developments in self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) have yielded m aterials of diverse structure and function. Useful tools based on SAMs are now available for probing molecular recognition at interfaces, an alyzing the binding of proteins and other biologically relevant molecu les, and spatially tailoring the chemical properties of a solid surfac e. SAMs have been developed which are suited to the modification of a wide range of complex substrates. Patterned growth techniques based on SAMs have been developed which might be applied to the fabrication of microelectronic and other complex molecular-scale devices.