THE EFFECT OF TERMINAL HYDROGEN-BONDING ON THE STRUCTURE AND DYNAMICSOF NANOPARTICLE SELF-ASSEMBLED MONOLAYERS (SAMS) - AN NMR DYNAMICS STUDY

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) with terminal hydrogen bonding groups can have remarkably different structure and dynamics to those of the more familiar alkenethiol SAMs. The effect of carboxylic acid terminal groups on the structure and dynamics of gold nanoparticle SAMs is inv estigated by C-13 NMR, 2D WISE NMR, and FTIR spectroscopies. A markedl y increased conformational order is reported, compared to that of meth yl-and hydroxy-terminated SAMs, along with a strong thermal hysteresis of the chain order, speculated to be due to a change from intra-to in terparticle hydrogen bonding.