Amine-terminated surfaces are especially useful for coupling reactions involving various biomolecules. One of the most widely researched precursors for the amination of inorganic surfaces is aminopropyltrimethoxysilane. Surface amination procedures involving this precursor molecule have proven to be extremely sensitive to a wide variety of parameters, and consequently, the resulting film is oftentimes of poor quality and has poor reproducibility from experiment to experiment. In many cases, poor film quality is attributed to the chemistry of the amine-terminated end of the molecule, which is able to interact strongly with the target surface and with itself. Here we report on an alternative approach to aminated surfaces. A new precursor molecule, in which the amine-terminated end is unable to form hydrogen bonds, has been synthesized. In-situ Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, contact angle analysis, and ellipsometry are used to characterize films formed from this new precursor on silica surfaces.