Electrochemical Grafting: A Modern Tool to Achieve New Materials Used for Recognition
Luisa Pilan, Eleonora-Mihaela Ungureanu and Gérard Bidan
We report here the functionalization of single-walled carbon nanotubes via electrochemical reduction of aryl diazonium salts, in a manner similar to that employed for functionalization of glassy carbon surfaces. Experiments were carried out first on a glassy carbon electrode taking into account its low porosity and structural similarity with SWNTs. There were investigated two commercially available diazonium salts (p-nitrobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate and 4-diazo-N,N-diethylaniline tetrafluoroborate) that allowed grafting of electroactive p-phenyldiazonium derivatives on electrode surfaces. Grafted phenyl derivatives were characterized by cyclic voltammetry and squarewave voltammetry after potentiodynamic or potentiostatic electrografting. The effect of varying several parameters (concentration, potential, grafting time) was investigated.
Keywords: Electrografting; p-nitrobenzenediazonium tetrafluoroborate; 4-diazo-N,N-diethylaniline tetrafluoroborate; functionalization; glassy carbon, single walled carbon nanotubes.