Ferrocenyl Oligo(phenylene-vinylene) Thiols for the Construction of Self-Assembled Monolayers

A short and efficient preparation of conjugated oligo(phenylene-ethylene) thiols bearing redox-active ferrocene moieties is described. While minimising the number of synthetic steps, the proposed strategy permits the development of sets of oligomers with varying chain length. The redox properties of the compounds in solution are determined. Preliminary studies of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold electrodes are discussed, and indicate that electron transfer through the SAMs is indeed rapid.