Self‐Assembled Monolayers: Bioinspired Catechol‐Terminated Self‐Assembled Monolayers with Enhanced Adhesion Properties (Small 8/2014)

Abstract

The remarkable adhesion to substrates shown by mussel byssus proteins has been mainly attributed to the presence of significant amounts of catechol‐like tyrosine in their sequences. As reported on page 1594, D. Ruiz‐Molina and co‐workers measure the retraction force of an AFM tip in contact with the upward‐facing catechol rings of a model compound, self‐assembled in monolayers and bound to epitaxial gold surfaces via a thiol group. The results show the importance of spatial and chemical order in catecholic layers with regard to enhanced adhesion.