title: Purification of ethanol for highly sensitive self-assembly experiments.
abstract: Ethanol is the preferred solvent for the formation of self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) of thiolates on gold. By applying a thin film sensor system, we could demonstrate that even the best commercial qualities of ethanol contain surface-active contaminants, which can compete with the desired thiolates for surface sites. Here we present that gold nanoparticles deposited onto zeolite X can be used to remove these contaminants by chemisorption. This nanoparticle-impregnated zeolite does not only show high capacities for surface-active contaminants, such as thiols, but can be fully regenerated via a simple pyrolysis protocol.
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Straße 7, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Kathrin
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Barbe
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Straße 7, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kind
authors.affiliation: Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps Universität Marburg, Hans-Meerwein-Straße, 35032 Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Pfeiffer
authors.affiliation: Institut für Anorganische und Analytische Chemie, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Max-von-Laue-Straße 7, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Terfort
keywords: ethanol; gold nanoparticles; purification; self-assembled monolayers; solvent