Versatile nanografting pathway to functionally embellished fluorogenic small-molecule on two-dimensional inorganic surfaces

Abstract Nanografting as a pathway to create functionalized two-dimensional inorganic surfaces capable of immobilizing fluorogenic substituted-fluorene dye is demonstrated. Of particular importance is that the self-assembled monolayer of 3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane is successfully modified with 9H-fluorene-9-carbonyl chloride carbonyl chloride via amide coupling reactions. Physico-chemical properties of self-assembled monolayer are studied by water contact angle (WCA) measurements, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS). The optical properties were determined by photoluminescence spectroscopy. The WCA and AFM data suggest that employing the same functionalization protocol on two different surfaces, (SiO2/Si) and GaN/Al2O3 respectively, may lead to different but meaningful results. XPS results confirm fluorene dye covalently attached onto two-dimensional inorganic surfaces via self-assembled monolayer of aminopropyl silane.