STRUCTURATION OF ADHESION PROMOTERS AT INTERFACES: A MOLECULAR LEVEL INVESTIGATION

摘要

The modification of metal surfaces with organic monolayers and thin films is a vast subject that impacts upon a wide variety of technologically and scientifically important areas. Such monolayers, often referred to as self-assembled monolayers (SAMs), are used in fields such as catalysis, corrosion protection studies, lubrication, adhesion, chemical sensors, biological applications (as platforms for the studies of protein adsorption and cell adhesion due to their simplicity and flexibility), control of the wetting properties, lithographical applications and molecular electronics. Adhesion promoters are dedicated organic molecules used in composite industries to improve stress transfer between organic polymer matrix and the reinforcing element. The process of spontaneous adsorption and organization of adhesion promoters from dilute solution has been successfully employed previously with a number of long chain molecules at metal surfaces and the method offers a simple and attractive method for surface modification at the single monolayer level [1-2].