The electrochemical grafting of a mixture of substituted phenyl groups at a glassy carbon electrode surface.

Two-component substituted aryl groups are simultaneously grafted onto the surface of a glassy carbon electrode by electrochemical reduction of a binary mixture of two aryl diazonium salts in acetonitrile. The electrochemical deposition is achieved potentiostatically and two different mixtures with four different ratios of diazonium salts are used. The binary mixtures comprise: 1) 4-nitrophenyl diazonium and 4-bromophenyl diazonium cations and 2) 4-bromophenyl diazonium and N,N-diethylaniline diazonium cations. The chemical composition of the two component films is determined by cyclic voltammetry in an electrolyte inert for electroactive groups such as nitrophenyl and bromophenyl. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is also used to evaluate the surface concentration of each grafted substituted phenyl group. The surface concentration of the substituted phenyl group for which the corresponding diazonium cation is the most easily reduced is higher than its concentration in the mixture of the deposition solution. The usefulness of binary films is also discussed.