Surface and bulk interactions of organic molecules with calixarene layers

Abstract

Modified calixarenes can be used as model compounds to study molecular recognition since their molecular cavities reversibly incorporate small organic molecules. This effect has been used in chemical sensors with bulk and surface acoustic wave devices, coated with thin calixarene layers. These devices sensitively convert the mass changes during molecule/calixarene interactions into electronic signals. Thin films of modified calixarenes were prepared with various side groups and various sizes by Knudsen sublimation under well-defined, ultra-high-vacuum conditions. The interaction with perchloroethylene, chloroform, benzene, and toluene at constant temperatures, T, and partial pressures, p_i, was studied systematically for different film thicknesses, d, by means of mass changes Δm=f(T,p _i,d). From the thickness dependence of values, Δm_eq, obtained under thermodynamic equilibrium conditions, surface and bulk effects during molecule calixarene interactions were separated. Pronounced excesses of surface concentrations of organic molecules have been found. Activation energies for molecular desorption from surface sites and for diffusion to subsurface sites were determined from mass spectroscopic results of thermal desorption behaviour. Experimental data of adsorption and desorption energies were confirmed by theoretical force field calculations.