Surface grafting of a dense and rigid coordination polymer based on tri-para-carboxy-polychlorotriphenylmethyl radical and copper acetate

The step-by-step method is here presented as suitable to anchor on appropriately functionalized gold surfaces a metal-organic coordination polymer based on a non-planar trigonal tri-para-carboxy-polychlorotriphenylmethyl radical derivative and copper acetate. The structural characteristics of the grafted coordination polymer are derived during the step-wise growth from the real time changes in refractive index and oscillation frequency. The film thickness, as measured by scanning force microscopy, combined with the mass uptake value from the quartz crystal microbalance, are used to estimate an average density of the grafted metal-organic coordination polymer that suggests the formation of a dense and rather rigid thin film. This journal is © 2013 The Royal Society of Chemistry.