Novel method for preparation of disulfides on silicon

This work describes an efficient novel method to incorporate reactive disul fide bonds onto a silica surface under mild reaction conditions. The reacti ve thiol groups introduced onto the silicon surface in the first reaction s tep will be oxidized but easily converted into highly reactive thiopyridyl groups, which can therefore easily be utilized for further organic synthesi s involving thiol-containing molecules. This is done in a way that yields a pproximately a monolayer of reactant on the surface, thereby not adding to the roughness of the surface, of special importance, for instance, for sing le molecule interaction studies.