Carbon-Rich Monolayers on ITO as Highly Sensitive Platforms for Detecting Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water: The Case of Pyrene

Surface chemical reactions on self-assembled silane based monolayers

In this review, we aim to update our review "Chemical modification of self-assembled silane-based monolayers by surface reactions" which was published in 2010 and has developed into an important guiding tool for researchers working on the modification of solid substrate surface properties by chemical modification of silane-based self-assembled monolayers. Due to the rapid development of this field of research in the last decade, the utilization of chemical functionalities in self-assembled monolayers has been significantly improved and some new processes were introduced in chemical surface reactions for tailoring the properties of solid substrates. Thus, it is time to update the developments in the surface functionalization of silane-based molecules. Hence, after a short introduction on self-assembled monolayers, this review focuses on a series of chemical reactions, i.e., nucleophilic substitution, click chemistry, supramolecular modification, photochemical reaction, and other reactions, which have been applied for the modification of hydroxyl-terminated substrates, like silicon and glass, which have been reported during the last 10 years.

Selective Discrimination of Toxic Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons in Water by Targeting π-Stacking Interactions

The development of highly sensitive and selective devices for rapid screening of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in water is nowadays a crucial challenge owing to their alarming abundance in the environment and adverse health effects. Herein, inspired by the unique π-stacking interactions taking place between identical small aromatic molecules, a novel, generic, and straightforward methodology to electrochemically determine and discriminate such pollutants is described. Such a method is focused on covalently anchoring different PAHs on an indium tin oxide electrode surface by means of self-assembled monolayers. The surface-anchored PAHs act as recognition units to selectivity interact with a specific PAH target of the same nature. By tailoring the recognition platform with four different model PAH molecules (naphthalene, anthracene, pyrene, and fluoranthene) and carrying out an electronic tongue approximation, the selective discrimination and quantification of the selected PAHs in aqueous samples at ultralow concentrations were achieved impedimetrically, which were also validated using a certified reference PAH mixture.