Electrochemically driven host–guest interactions on patterned donor/acceptor self-assembled monolayers

Here, on ITO//Au patterned substrates SAMs of ferrocene (Fc) on the Au regions and of anthraquinone (AQ) on the ITO areas are prepared, exhibiting three stable redox states. Furthermore, by selectively oxidizing or reducing the Fc or AQ units, respectively, the surface properties are locally modified. As a proof-of-concept, such a confinement of the properties is exploited to locally form host–guest complexes with β-cyclodextrin on specific surface regions depending on the applied voltage.