The use of N-heterocyclic carbenes to modify homogeneous metal catalysts is widespread, however despite the versatility of these complexes, the high metal–NHC bond strength and oxidative stability of NHC–ligated metals, and the ease of synthesis of NHCs, there have been only a handful of reports of mostly ill-defined surfaces funtionalized by NHCs.<br/>We will describe the first example of the synthesis of gold surfaces, both Au(111) and Au nanoparticles, modified by common N-heterocyclic carbenes. In particular, films prepared by the deposition of NHC <b>1</b> (1,3-dihydro-1,3-bisisopropylbenzimidazol-2-ylidene), show molecular ordering on the surface and remarkable stability. They show no decomposition upon heating for 24 hrs in THF, in boiling in water for 24hrs or upon treatment with acid (pH 2) or base (pH 12). Incredibly, they even survive largely after 24 hr exposure to hydrogen peroxide. This remarkable increase in stability relative to thiol-based SAMs will greatly increase the number of reagents and conditions to which the SAMs can be exposed.<br/>The use of these SAMs on flat metal surfaces, on nanoparticles and nanoclusters will be described, as will applications in biosensing and catalysis

N-heterocyclic carbenes as novel, stable ligands for self-assembled monolayers on 2-dimensional metal surfaces, metal nanoparticles, and metal nanoclusters

251st National Meeting (2016)

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