Date of Award

8-2016

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Chemistry

First Advisor

Shelley A. Claridge

Committee Chair

Shelley A. Claridge

Committee Member 1

Chende Mao

Committee Member 2

David H. Thompson

Abstract

Self-assembled monolayers (SAM’s) offer a straightforward approach to tailoring the interfacial properties of metals, metal oxides and semiconductors. Noncovalent functionalization of single-layer graphene offers the possibility to finely tune surface chemistry for future applications in electronics. Polymerization of photochemically reactive molecules in a lying-down phase has been used to increase the strength of intermolecular interactions between long alkanes and HOPG substrates. Long-chain fatty acid derivatives with internal diyne groups yield a conjugated ene-yne polymer upon UV irradiation. Diyne lipids with phosphocholine (diyne PC) and phosphoethanolamine (diyne PE) groups offer a charged form of the head group that is robust towards solvents and contain photopolymerizable diyne groups within the acyl chains. The orientation of polymerizable phospholipids on HOPG was assessed by matching dimensions from AFM images of the observed lamellar features. Molecular modeling provided insight into the interactions occurring between head groups and tail groups along with presenting ideas about the molecular alignment of the lipids on the HOPG substrate, before and after polymerization. The films were assessed for solvent stability and for the ability to template deposition of other small molecules.

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