No abstract

This contribution reports on the influence of acids on the quality of carboxylic-acid-terminated self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) on gold prepared from ethanolic solution of HS-(CH(2))(15)-COOH and HS-(CH(2))(11)CONH-(EG)(6)CH(2)-COOH. Null ellipsometry, contact angle goniometry, and infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy are used to monitor the physical and chemical changes occurring within the SAMs upon acid post treatment; after incubation with acids present in the solution; and after incubation in aged acid containing solutions. The presence of acid has a positive effect on the crystallinity, packing, and orientation of the supporting alkyl and ethylene glycol subunits of the SAM. Our studies also confirm previous findings stating that the carboxylic groups are rapidly converted into ethyl ester groups in the presence of hydrochloric acid in the incubation solution. It is also evident that the conversion occurs in the presence of the weaker acid, acetic acid, although at a much slower rate than that for hydrochloric acid. This is a new observation that has not been reported on before. The physical and chemical characterization is also complemented with a functional bioaffinity study. The functional evaluation revealed that the present model system was surprisingly insensitive to the degree of esterification of the carboxylic acid groups, but that 4 weeks of storage of the two investigated thiols in hydrochloric acid containing ethanol resulted in SAMs that were completely inactive with respect to immobilization and subsequent binding of the antigen. It was encouraging to note that the nonspecific binding of both antigen and antibody was extremely low on the two SAMs, regardless of the relative amount of ethyl esters on the surface.

Dynamic acrylamide/acrylate polymeric brushes were synthesized at gold-plated quartz crystal surfaces. The crystals were initially coated with polystyrene-type thin films, derivatized with photolabile iniferter groups, and subsequently subjected to photoinitiated polymerization in acrylamide/acrylate monomer feeds. This surface-confined polymerization method enabled direct photocontrol over the polymerization, as followed by increased frequency responses of the crystal oscillations in a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM). The produced polymer layers were also found to be highly sensitive to external acid/base stimuli. Large oscillation frequency shifts were detected when the brushes were exposed to buffer solutions of different pH. The dynamic behavior of the resulting polymeric brushes was evaluated, and the extent of expansion and contraction of the films was monitored by the QCM setup in situ in real time. The resulting responses were rapid, and the effects were fully reversible. Low pH resulted in full contractions of the films, whereas higher pH yielded maximal expansion in order to minimize repulsion around the charged acrylate centers. The surfaces also proved to be very robust because the responsiveness was reproducible over many cycles of repeated expansion and contraction. Using ellipsometry, copolymer layers were estimated to be approximately 220 nm in a collapsed state and approximately 340 nm in the expanded state, effectively increasing the thickness of the film by 55%.