Functionalization of silicon dioxide surface with 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane for fullerene C60 immobilization.

: Formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAM) of 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane (APTMS), chemically bonded to silicon dioxide surface, using a new solvent free process, has been studied by contact angle measurements, ellipsometry, ATR-FTIR spectroscopy and AFM imaging. The possibility of using as-obtained APTMS SAMs for anchoring functional molecular moieties is then studied with fullerene C60. In a first part we have analyzed the grafting kinetics of APTMS SAMs in order to control the formation of a single monolayer. Results show that about four hours are needed to obtain a complete APTMS single monolayer. In parallel, the ordering kinetics of the SAM has been monitored by ATR-FTIR spectroscopy, showing that the monolayer reaches its final order before grafting. We show that those APTMS SAMs can be used to graft C60 molecules deposited from a solution and forming about one monolayer anchored on amine terminal moieties. Such results could help paving the way to the preparation of hybrid C60-based molecular devices on silicon through a bottom-up approach.