Self-assembled monolayers of dendron thiols for electrodeposition of gold nanostructures: Toward fabrication of superhydrophobic/superhydrophilic surfaces and pH-responsive surfaces

This paper describes the fabrication of surfaces with different wettability, superhydrophobic/ superhydrophilic, and pH-responsive properties. We used a self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of a dendron thiol as the underlying surface for electrodeposition of gold nanostructures. After this modification with a SAM of n-dodecanethiol or 11-mercaptoundecanol, the surface shows remarkable superhydrophobic properties with a contact angle of about 155degrees and a tilt angle of less than 2degrees or superhydrophilic properties with a contact angle of about 0degrees, respectively. Moreover, a large-scale pH-responsive surface was obtained by modification with 2-(11-mercaptoundecanamido)benzoic acid (7) (MUABA). The pH-responsive behaviour was amplified by using rough surfaces.