| Abstract: | The work reported herein concerns the assembly of N-stearoyl L -cysteine methyl ester CH3(CH2)16COCysOMe, 1] on the surface of gold. This compound serves as a simple model of a related polypeptide, which has been designed to adopt a β-sheet architecture on metallic and oxide surfaces. We describe the preparation of monolayers of 1, and characterization of these layers via ellipsometry, vibrational spectroscopy and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The results are most consistent with a disordered array of the alkyl chains, in which close packing is frustated by a mismatch in the cross-sectional areas of the cysteinyl ester head group and the stearoyl chains of the thiol. Despite the disorder, the alkyl chains form a hydrophobic surface layer, with an advancing contact angle for water comparable to that observed for octadecanethiol on gold © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. |
