Leendert G.J. van der Ven

Significance of the Amide Functionality on DOPA-Based Monolayers on Gold

The adhesive proteins secreted by marine mussels contain an unusual amino acid, 3,4-dihydroxyphenylalanine (DOPA), that is responsible for the cohesive and adhesive strength of this natural glue and gives mussels the ability to attach themselves to rocks, metals, and plastics. Here we report a detailed structural and spectroscopic investigation of the interface between N-stearoyldopamine and a single-crystalline Au(111) model surface and an amide-absent molecule, 4-stearylcatechol, also on Au(111), with the aim of understanding the role of the amide functionality in the packing, orientation, and fundamental interaction between the substrate and the monolayer formed from an aqueous environment by the Langmuir-Blodgett technique. The organization of monolayers on gold was observed directly and studied in detail by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), contact angle measurements (CA), surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy (IRRAS), and atomic force microscopy (AFM). Our study shows that within the monolayer the catecholic oxygen atoms are coordinated to the gold surface, having a more perpendicular orientation with respect to the aromatic ring and the apparently tilted alkyl chains, whereas the amide functionality stabilizes the monolayer that is formed.

Quantitative conductive atomic force microscopy on single-walled carbon nanotube-based polymer composites

Conductive atomic force microscopy (C-AFM) is a valuable technique for correlating the electrical properties of a material with its topographic features and for identifying and characterizing conductive pathways in polymer composites. However, aspects such as compatibility between tip material and sample, contact force and area between the tip and the sample, tip degradation and environmental conditions render quantifying the results quite challenging. This study aims at finding the suitable conditions for C-AFM to generate reliable, reproducible, and quantitative current maps that can be used to calculate the resistance in each point of a single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) network, nonimpregnated as well as impregnated with a polymer. The results obtained emphasize the techniques limitation at the macroscale as the resistance of these highly conductive samples cannot be distinguished from the tip-sample contact resistance. Quantitative C-AFM measurements on thin composite sections of 150-350 nm enable the separation of sample and tip-sample contact resistance, but also indicate that these sections are not representative for the overall SWCNT network. Nevertheless, the technique was successfully used to characterize the local electrical properties of the composite material, such as sample homogeneity and resistance range of individual SWCNT clusters, at the nano- and microscale.