Mass spectrometric analysis of acid-assisted photochemical release of the trimethyl lock system on the monolayers on gold

We report the acid-assisted photolysis of the trimethyl lock system which has long been harnessed for a variety of applications such as drug delivery, cellular imaging, enzyme activity assays, and surface patterning. By mass spectrometric analysis, we found that photoinduced intramolecular cyclization and the ensuing release of the pendant groups of the trimethyl lock on the self-assembled monolayers proceeded cleanly in the presence of HCl, to give a high yield.