Nanomechanical characterization of chemical interaction between gold nanoparticles and chemical functional groups

Abstract

We report on how to quantify the binding affinity between a nanoparticle and chemical functional group using various experimental methods such as cantilever assay, PeakForce quantitative nanomechanical property mapping, and lateral force microscopy. For the immobilization of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs) onto a microscale silicon substrate, we have considered two different chemical functional molecules of amine and catecholamine (here, dopamine was used). It is found that catecholamine-modified surface is more effective for the functionalization of AuNPs onto the surface than the amine-modified surface, which has been shown from our various experiments. The dimensionless parameter (i.e., ratio of binding affinity) introduced in this work from such experiments is useful in quantitatively depicting such binding affinity, indicating that the binding affinity and stability between AuNPs and catecholamine is approximately 1.5 times stronger than that between amine and AuNPs. Our study sheds light on the experiment-based quantitative characterization of the binding affinity between nanomaterial and chemical groups, which will eventually provide an insight into how to effectively design the functional material using chemical groups.

Facile synthesis of gold/polymer nanocomposite particles using polymeric amine-based particles as dual reductants and templates

“…The amide binding energy has also increased from 399.3 eV to 401.07 eV, indicating that the gold nanoparticles also coordinate to amide groups. These XPS results evidently suggest that there are strong interactions between gold nanoparticles and nitrogen-containing functional groups such as amine and amide groups [35,39].…”

“…6b. This effect might mainly attributed to the strong binding of gold nanoparticles with amine groups, leading to tightening of the PEI shell [35].…”

Advances in AFM Imaging Applications for Characterizing the Biophysical Properties of Amyloid Fibrils

“…Compared to a typical AFM imaging method, PeakForce QNM can simultaneously yield high-resolution AFM imaging with quantitative mechanical property mapping. PeakForce QNM has recently emerged as a means of measuring the intrinsic and biophysical properties of nanomaterials [47], including amyloid fibrils [17,19]. The following section will discuss the mapping the mechanical properties of amyloid fibrils by PeakForce QNM.…”

Towards the Fabrication of the Top‐Contact Electrode in Molecular Junctions by Photoreduction of a Metal Precursor

“…[63][64][65] Therefore, it is important to verify whether the metal contacting strategy proposed in this paper also leads to short-circuits or whether on the contrary it resonance frequency). [66][67][68][69] The PF-TUNA™ operation mode for the AFM was chosen in order to avoid lateral forces during the imaging that would have damaged the tip coating and sample surface, while at the same time allowing the use of cantilevers with a low spring constant. Thus, this is a method for the conductivity mapping of soft or fragile samples and as such it has been chosen for conductivity probing of our metal|organic monolayer|GNIs, rather than using STM or conducting AFM in conventional contact mode.…”