Design of robust 2,2′-bipyridine ligand linkers for the stable immobilization of molecular catalysts on silicon(111) surfaces
The attachment of the 2,2′-bipyridine (bpy) moieties to the surface of planar silicon(111) (photo)electrodes was investigated usingab initiosimulations performed on a new cluster model for methyl-terminated silicon. Density functional theory (B3LYP) with implicit solvation techniques indicated that adventitious chlorine atoms, when present in the organic linker backbone, led to instability at very