Table 1.
Average adhesion forces of Au films with methylene (–CH3), amino (–NH2) and thiol (–SH) functional groups with standard deviation in brackets. The corresponding values obtained for NPs of around 20 nm diameter coated with the same molecules. The films display a similar adhesion dependence on the ligand end groups as the functionalized particles. Thiol end group covered NP is subjected to the highest interaction with silicon probe tip, and methylene group covered NP to the lowest.
| Chemical end group | CH3 | NH2 | SH | |
| Adhesion force (nN) | on flat substrate | 15.2 ± 1.3 | 31.1 ± 3.7 | 46.2 ± 4.9 |
| on nanoparticles | 5 ± 0.5 | 15 ± 2 | 25 ± 3 | |