Patent ID: 7445815

Claim:
A process for preparing a film having alternating monolayers of a metal-metal bonded complex monolayer and an organic monolayer by layer-by-layer growth, said process comprising: (1) applying onto a surface of a substrate a first linker compound represented by the formula: G1-Linker a -G2 to produce a primer layer of said first tinker compound; wherein Gi is selected from the group consisting of: CI 3 Si and SH; G2 is selected from the group consisting of: 4-pyridyl and 4-cyanophenyl; and Linker a is selected from the group consisting of: C 1 -C 8 alkylene, C 1 -C 8 alkenediyl, C 1 -C 8 alkynediyl and 1,4-arylene; (2) applying onto said primer layer a metal-metal bonded complex to produce on said primer layer a metal-metal bonded complex monolayer; wherein said metal-metal bonded complex is selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by the following formulas: and a combination thereof; wherein: L ax is an axial ligand; L eq is an equatorial ligand; wherein two equatorial ligands together form a bidentate ligand Q W; wherein each Q W is independently selected from the group consisting of N N, N O, O N, N S, S N, N P, P N, O S, S O, O O, P P and S S ligands; M is a transition metal; wherein the group is a dicarboxylate bridging group selected from the group consisting of compounds represented by the formulas: and mixtures thereof; and wherein m is integer from 1 to 12, and n is 0 to 3; (3) applying onto said metal-metal bonded complex monolayer a second linker compound represented by the formula: G3-Linker b -G4 to produce on said metal-metal bonded complex monolayer an organic monolayer; wherein G3 and G4 are the same or different functional groups capable of interacting with a metal-metal bonded complex; and Linker b is a single bond or a diflinctional organic group bonded to G3 and G4; and optionally (4) sequentially repeating steps (2) and (3) at least once to produce said layer-by-layer grown thin film having alternating monolayers of a metal-metal bonded complex monolayer and an organic monolayer.