Corrosion Behaviors Studied in Self-Assembled Processes of Alkanethiol Monolayers on Polycrystalline Gold Substrates

摘要

In this paper, the corrosion phenomenon occurred on the polycrystalline gold substrates has been for the first time observed by in situ quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) method for adsorption of alkanethiol monolayers, which may be attributed to thiol-induced dissolution of gold during the adsorption process in the presence of oxygen. It is evident from the image of many corrosive defects or holes produced on the surface of gold grains by using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The kinetic equation on corrosion rate of gold dissolved in the organothiol solution has been obtained. The gold corrosion rate at fast stage can be estimated to be 9.2 × 10~(11) Au atoms cm~(-2) s~(-1).