Electrochemical switching of wetting of gold surface covered with self-assembled monolayer

COLL 200

Ryo Yamada and Hirokazu Tada. Research center for molecular scale nanoscience, Institute for Molecular Science, Okazaki, 444-8585, Japan
We report a method for active and reversible swithching of the wetting of gold surface. Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of alkanethiol-based molecules with redox active group was formed on a gold substrate. The contact angle of the oil droplet on the gold substrate in aqueous solution changed as electrochemical reaction of the redox group in the SAM proceeded. The process was highly reversible and was repeated for many times, showing an ability for many applications.