Inhibition of electrochemical reactions at gold surfaces by grafted, highly fluorinated, hyperbranched polymer films Academic Article uri icon

abstract

  • We report the synthesis and passivation properties of surface-grafted, highly fluorinated, hyperbranched poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) films that contain up to 50 atom % F. These films are very hydrophobic (water contact angle of up to 114) and block electrochemical reactions on gold electrodes. Cyclic voltammetry in basic solution shows that while an electrode covered with a three-layer PAA (3-PAA) film mimics an assembly of microelectrodes, a fluorinated three-layer PAA (3-PAA/F) film blocks nearly all electron transfer to the gold surface. The charge transfer resistance of electrodes covered with a 3-PAA/F film is about 40 times greater than that for an electrode covered with a nonfluorinated 3-PAA film. 3-PAA/F films are initially 10 times more blocking than C16SH SAMs. Additionally, while the SAM is desorbed by electrochemical cycling, 3-PAA/F films are still highly blocking after ten potential sweeps over a 1.5 V range. Thus fluorinated PAA films are promising candidates for corrosion-inhibiting coatings.

published proceedings

  • LANGMUIR

altmetric score

  • 3

author list (cited authors)

  • Zhao, M. Q., Zhou, Y. F., Bruening, M. L., Bergbreiter, D. E., & Crooks, R. M.

citation count

  • 63

complete list of authors

  • Zhao, MQ||Zhou, YF||Bruening, ML||Bergbreiter, DE||Crooks, RM

publication date

  • March 1997