High‐efficiency white polymer light‐emitting diodes are demonstrated by using a hole‐injection/transport bilayer. The excellent solvent resistance of the fully crosslinked hole‐injection layer ensures the subsequent solution processing of the light‐emitting layer. High power efficiency can be achieved. The device also emits quite stable white light. The figure shows a schematic of the device and the chemical structure of the VB‐TCTA layer.
Current biotechnological applications such as biosensors, protein arrays, and microchips require oriented immobilization of enzymes. The characteristics of recognition, self-assembly and ease of genetic manipulation make inorganic binding peptides an ideal molecular tool for site-specific enzyme immobilization. Herein, we demonstrate the utilization of gold binding peptide (GBP1) as a molecular linker genetically fused to alkaline phosphatase (AP) and immobilized on gold substrate. Multiple tandem repeats (n = 5, 6, 7, 9) of gold binding peptide were fused to N-terminus of AP (nGBP1-AP) and the enzymes were expressed in E. coli cells. The binding and enzymatic activities of the bi-functional fusion constructs were analyzed using quartz crystal microbalance spectroscopy and biochemical assays. Among the multiple-repeat constructs, 5GBP1-AP displayed the best bi-functional activity and, therefore, was chosen for self-immobilization studies. Adsorption and assembly properties of the fusion enzyme, 5GBP1-AP, were studied via surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. We demonstrated self-immobilization of the bi-functional enzyme on micro-patterned substrates where genetically linked 5GBP1-AP displayed higher enzymatic activity per area compared to that of AP. Our results demonstrate the promising use of inorganic binding peptides as site-specific molecular linkers for oriented enzyme immobilization with retained activity. Directed assembly of proteins on solids using genetically fused specific inorganic-binding peptides has a potential utility in a wide range of biosensing and bioconversion processes.
We have developed a protein-enabled strategy to fabricate quantum dot (QD) nanoarrays where up to a 15-fold increase in surface-plasmon-enhanced fluorescence has been achieved. This approach permits a comprehensive control both laterally (via lithographically defined gold nanoarrays) and vertically (via the QD-metal distance) of the collectively behaving assemblies of QDs and gold nanoarrays by way of biomolecular recognition. Specifically, we demonstrated the spectral tuning of plasmon resonant metal nanoarrays and self-assembly of protein-functionalized QDs in a stepwise fashion with a concomitant incremental increase in separation from the metal surface through biotin-streptavidin spacer units.
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