ELECTROLESS DEPOSITION OF METAL NANOISLANDS ON AMINOTHIOLATE-FUNCTIONALIZED AU(111) ELECTRODES

We show that selective electroless deposition (ELD) can be used as a t ool for electrochemical nanostructuring. In a first step, we bound pal ladium ions to an aminothiolate (AT) layer on an Au(111) surface. Chem ical reduction then served for the fabrication of metallic palladium i slands of monatomic height that can in turn activate the ELD of cobalt . We studied the growth of cobalt islands as a function of the oxygen concentration in the deposition bath and of the aminothiolate concentr ation in mixed amino-/alkanethiolate self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). In situ scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and X-ray photoelectron s pectroscopy (XPS) measurements showed that palladium and cobalt form i slands of 1-3 nm up to 60 nm diameter, the size being controlled by th e oxygen concentration in the bath.