Diazonium compounds are employed as a new class of coupling agents to link polymers, biomacromolecules, and other species (e. g. metallic nanoparticles) to the surface of materials. The resulting high performance materials show improved chemical and physical properties and find widespread applications. The advantage of aryl diazonium salts compared to other surface modifiers lies in their ease of preparation, rapid (electro)reduction, large choice of reactive functional groups, and strong...