Self-Assembled Monolayers for Surface Modification

This chapter describes the construction of Self-assembled monolayers (SAM), approaches for immobilising biological elements, especially glycan, and the applications of SAM in nanotechnology, nanoelectronics, and biosensing. SAM represents one of the most rigorously and extensively studied examples of inanimate self-assembling systems. The substrate surface usually requires preparation: in the case of noble metals such as gold on the surfaces of commercially available electrodes by physical vapour deposition. The terminal functional group at the interface governs the surface properties and character of the chemical functionality of a surface. Typical non-specific non-covalent immobilisation is by adsorption of the biological element onto different SAM or even modified polymeric surfaces. Immobilisation through carboxylic, carbonyl, amino or thiol groups usually does not require any further synthetic modification of the element. Mixed SAM is a simple approach which can minimise non-specific interactions and at the same time provide a different linkage density of elements on the SAM surface.