Dithiocarbamate Assembly on Gold

The functionalization of metal substrates with organic ligands has become a standard practice in surface science and nanomaterials chemistry. Perhaps the most prevalent example is the chemisorption of thiols on Au, a simple yet versatile approach for preparing surfaces with tunable physical or chemical properties1,2 or with biological recognition elements.3-5 While such chemistry has proven to be very useful for a multitude of applications, it also has limitations; thiols can be displaced from the metal surface6 or may be incompatible with other functional groups associated with the ligand. Molecules with carbodithioate (-CS2) groups may have superior chemisorption properties, as their interatomic S-S dis-tances are nearly ideal for epitaxial adsorption onto Au surfaces.7 Such ligands would be attractive alternatives to thiols if issues of accessibility and robustness of adsorption can be addressed. In this Communication, we describe the spontaneous assembl