Dithioesters and Trithiocarbonates Monolayers on Gold

We show that dithioester and trithiocarbonate compounds, used as chain transfer agents in reversible
addition fragmentation chain transfer polymerization, form monolayers on gold. We evidence that the
monolayers are slightly less dense than those formed by long alkanethiols on gold, but show a surface
coverage that is close to the one obtained for short alkanethiols. Since the grafting density of polymer
brushes is limited by the steric hindrance which inhibits the diffusion of large free polymer chains to opensurface
reactive sites, the relatively high grafting density of dithioesters and trithiocarbonates anchoring
groups is not expected to limit the density of the brushes