Electron transfer channel in the sugar recognition system assembled on gold nano particles

The recently reported electrochemical sugar recognition system consisting of pheylboronic acids and ruthenium (Ru) complexes, assembled on a gold nano particle with a diameter of 10 nm, attracts much interest because of its high sensitivity for various sugar molecules. When sugar molecules are attached to the phenilboronic site, the responce of electrochemical voltammetry at Ru site drastically changes. The purpose of this study is to find out a channel of the electron transfer from the phenilboronic site to the Ru-complex via alkyl chains, connecting them to the surface of gold particle. Finding of this channel must be a key to understand the sugar-recognition mechanism. If this channel does exist, one-dimensional motion of electrons is expected within alkyl chains, which can be detected by the muon-labelling measurement with the LF-muSR technique.