Self-assembling monolayers in the construction of planned supramolecular suctures and as modifiers of surface properties

Organized monolayer structures prepared on polar solids via spontaneous adsoption from organic solutions (self-assembly) exhibit some rather unique features, particularly relevant with regard to possible technological applications of such systems. The outstanding stability of covalently bonded monolayers under exposure to a variety of adverse physical and chemical agents allows well known methods of synthetic organic chemistry to be applied to their in situ chemical modification. This offers interesting new opportunities for the engineering of planned film structures, directly on the desired solid surface. Exemples will be given to illustrate the key roles of molecular organization and mode of film-to-surface binding in the chemical manipulation of preassembled films, while briefly discussing some related aspects of the process of molecular self-assembly at solid-liquid interfaces. The discussion will focus on three different directions of application :1