A route was developed for the synthesis of three different cyclodextrin adsorbates: heptakis{6-O-[3-(thiomethyl)propionyl)]-2,3-di-O-methyl}-β-cyclodextrin, heptakis{6-O-[12-(thiododecyl)dodecanoyl)]-2,3-di-O-methyl}-β-cyclodextrin (a short and long alkyl chain sulfide cyclodextrin adsorbate, respectively), and
heptakis[6-deoxy-6-(3-mercaptopropionamidyl)-2,3-di-O-methyl]-β-cyclodextrin (a short alkyl chain thiol
adsorbate). Self-assembled monolayers on gold of these three cyclodextrin adsorbates with seven sulfur
moieties were fully characterized by electrochemistry, wettability studies, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy
(XPS), and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF-SIMS). The electrochemical capacitance
measurements show the differences between the thicknesses of the β-cyclodextrin monolayers, and the
XPS-(S2p) measurements show the different effectivenesses of the sulfur moieties of the three monolayers
in their binding to the gold surface. Sulfide-based β-cyclodextrin monolayers use on average 4.5 of the
7 attachment points whereas the thiol-based cyclodextrin monolayer only uses 3.2 of the 7 sulfurs. These
experiments show that, for adsorbates with multiple attachment points, sulfides may be more effective
than thiols. TOF-SIMS measurements confirm the robust attachment of these adsorbates on gold obtained
by XPS.