Patterned organic layers on gold surfaces prepared by electro-grafting of photolabile-protected aryl diazonium salts†

The electroreduction of aryl diazonium salts is a powerful technique for functionalizing many surfaces. To widen the use of aryl diazonium salts in many more applications, new strategies allowing their use with classical photolithography techniques are essential. Herein, we describe the synthesis and properties of an aryl diazonium salt protected by a photolabile group. The photolabile protecting groups allow the facile patterning of an organic layer on gold substrates by photolithography upon exposure to soft UV light (365 nm). The resulting patterned films are characterized using optical microscopy and scanning electrochemical microscopy (SECM).