Sodium hydroxide pellets

All chemicals were purchased
and used without further purification.
Propan-2-ol (C₃H₈O, ≥99.5%), ethanol
(EtOH, ≥99.8%), methanol (MeOH, ≥99.5%), acetone (C₃H₆O, ≥99.5%), and hydrochloric acid (HCl,
37.0%) were purchased from VWR. Nitric acid (HNO₃, ≥65%),
sodium hydroxide pellets (NaOH, ≥98.0%), sodium borohydride
(NaBH₄, ≥97%), and l(+)-ascorbic acid (AA,
≥99%,) were purchased from Carl Roth. Hydrogen tetrachloroaurate
trihydrate (HAuCl₄·3H₂O, ≥99.9%),
hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB ≥99%), cetyltrimethylammonium
chloride solution (CTAC, 25 wt % in H₂O), hexadecylpyridinium
chloride monohydrate (CPC, 99.0–102.0%), (3-aminopropyl)triethoxysilane, N,N-diisopropylethylamine (DIPEA), and
poly(sodium 4-styrenesulfonate, M_w of
70000 g/mol) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich. 3-(Triethoxysilyl)propylsuccinic
anhydride, 3-acetoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, n-butyltriethoxysilane, and heptadecafluoro-1,1,2,2-tetrahydrodecyl)triethoxysilane
were purchased from abcr. (α-Thiol, ω-bromo)-terminated
poly(acrylic acid) (PAA-SH, M_w of 8500
g/mol) was purchased from Polymer Source Inc. Mica sheets were obtained
from Micro to Nano with different shapes and a thickness of 0.15 to
0.21 mm and the highest grade V-1 quality. Double-polished Si wafers
(orientation [100] of 5 mm length and 7 mm width) from Siegert Wafer
were used for ellipsometry measurements. Milli-Q water (18.2 MΩ·cm)
was used in all experiments.

Acetonitrile, hydrochloric acid (37 wt.%), ethyl acetate, and methanol were purchased from VWR International GmbH (Darmstadt, Germany). 2,2′-Azinobis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-suflonate) (ABTS), furfural (FF, furan-2-carbaldehyde), maltol (MAL, 3-hydroxy-2-methyl-pyran-2-one), methylglyoxal (MGO, 2-oxopropanal) (40 wt.%), norfuraneol (NF, 4-hydroxy-5-methyl-3-(2H)-furanone), potassium persulfate, and trolox (6-hydroxy-2,5,7,8-tetramethylchroman-2-carboxylic acid) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich GmbH (Steinheim, Germany). Potassium dihydrogen phosphate and potassium hydrogen phosphate were purchased from Merck KGaA (Darmstadt, Germany). 2,2-Diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical was purchased from TCI International GmbH (Hamburg, Germany). Pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde (PA, 1H-pyrrole-2-carbaldehyde) was purchased from Acros Organics N.V. (Geel, Belgium). Sodium hydroxide pellets were purchased from Carl Roth GmbH + Co. KG (Karlsruhe, Germany).