Impedance description of the effect of the polar potential on a Schiff base self-assembled monolayer

In this paper, the effect of polar potentials on Schiff base self-assembled monolayers was mainly investigated by the Electrochemical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) method. Different polar potentials and polarizing times were applied to this newly created monolayer, with an intention to reveal the relationship between the polar potential and the structure of this monolayer. The result showed that different polar potentials correspond to different complex resistance (Nyquist) plots, and the effect of polarizing time on this monolayer is regular and could be detected and reflected by the EIS plots conveniently. The results also demonstrated that the content of a C=N group related with the packing degree of this monolayer intimately, and the lower content of a C=N group corresponds to a denser structure of the monolayer, which could be presented by the value of electron transfer resistance (R-ct). The main meaning of our work is to have developed one novel way that could reflect the relationship between the structure of the monolayer and the polar potential, which surely will encourage further experiments not only on Schiff bases but on other self-assembled monolayer containing active groups.