Synthesis of ferrocenethiols containing oligo(phenylenevinylene) bridges and their characterization on gold electrodes.

Ferrocene-terminated oligo(phenylenevinylene) (OPV) methyl thiols have been prepared by orthogonal coupling of phenylene monomers. Ethoxy substituents on the phenyl rings improve the solubility of OPV, enabling the synthesis of longer oligomers. Self-assembled monolayers containing a mixture of a ferrocene OPV methyl thiol and a diluent alkanethiol were deposited on gold. A cyclic voltammetric study of monolayers containing oligomers of the same length with and without ethoxy solubilizing groups reveals that both solubilized and unsolubilized oligomers form well-packed self-assembled monolayers. Changing the position of the solubilizing groups on an oligomer chain does not preclude packing of the oligomer in the monolayer. Conventional chronoamperometry, which can be used to measure rate constants up to approximately 10(4) s(-1), is too slow to measure the electron-transfer rate through these oligomers over distances up to 35 A. OPV bridges are expected to be highly conjugated unlike oligo(phenyleneethynylene) bridges, which may be only partially conjugated because of rotation of the phenyl rings about the ethynylene bonds. Because of its high conjugation, OPV may prove useful as a molecular wire.