Applications of self-assembled monolayers in materials chemistry

Self-assembly provides a simple route to organise suitable organic molecule s on noble metal and selected nanocluster surfaces by using monolayers of l ong chain organic molecules with various functionalities like -SH, -COOH, - NH2, silanes etc. These surfaces can be effectively used to build-up intere sting nano level architectures. Flexibility with respect to the terminal fu nctionalities of the organic molecules allows the control of the hydrophobi city or hydrophilicity of metal surface, while the selection of length scal e can be used to tune the distant-dependent electron transfer behaviour. Or gano-inorganic materials tailored in this fashion are extremely important i n nanotechnology to construct nanoeletronic devices, sensor arrays, superca pacitors, catalysts, rechargeable power sources etc. by virtue of their siz e and shape-dependent electrical, optical or magnetic properties. The inter esting applications of monolayers and monolayer-protected clusters in mater ials chemistry are discussed using recent examples of size and shape contro l of the properties of several metallic and semiconducting nanoparticles. T he potential benefits of using these nanostructured systems for molecular e lectronic components are illustrated using Au and Ag nanoclusters with suit able bifunctional SAMs.