Cathodic electrografting of versatile ligands on Si(100) as a low-impact approach for establishing a Si--C bond: a surface-coordination study of substituted 2,2'-bipyridines with CuI ions.

Three distinct wet chemistry recipes were applied to hydrogen-terminated n- and p-Si(100) surfaces in a comparative study of the covalent grafting of two differently substituted 2,2'-bipyridines. The applied reactions require the use of heat, or visible light under a controlled atmosphere, or a suitable potential in an electrochemical cell. In this last case, hydrogen-terminated silicon is the working electrode in a cathodic electrografting (CEG) reaction, in which it is kept under reduction conditions. The resulting Si--C bound hybrids were characterized by a combination of AFM, dynamic contact-angle, and XPS analysis, with the help of theoretical calculations. The three distinct approaches were found to be suitable for obtaining ligand-functionalized Si surfaces. CEG resulted in the most satisfactory anchoring procedure, because of its better correlation between high coverage and preservation of the Si surface from both oxidation and contamination. The corresponding Si-bipyridine hybrid was reacted in a solution of CH3CN containing CuI ions coordinatively bound to the anchored ligands, as evidenced from the XPS binding-energy shift of the N atom donor functions. The reaction gave a 1:2 Cu-bipyridine surface complex, in which two ligands couple to a single CuI ion. The surface complex was characterized by the Cu Auger parameter and Cu/N XPS atomic-ratio values coincident with those for pure, unsupported CuI complex with the same 2,2'-bipyridine. Further support for such a specific metal-ligand interaction at the functionalized Si surface came from the distinct values of Cu2p binding energy and the Cu Auger parameter, which were obtained for the species resulting from CuI ion uptake on hydrogen-terminated Si(100).