Berlin 2012 – scientific programme

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O: Fachverband Oberflächenphysik

O 13: Polymeric biomolecular films

O 13.8: Talk

Monday, March 26, 2012, 17:45–18:00, MA 005

Biocompatible Nanomembranes based on PEGylation of Cross-Linked Self-Assembled Monolayers — •Nikolaus Meyerbröker¹, Zi-An Li², Wolfgang Eck¹, and Michael Zharnikov¹ — ¹Angewandte Physikalische Chemie, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany — ²Fakultät für Physik und Center forNanoIntegration, Universität Duisburg-Essen, 47048 Duisburg, Germany

Self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) represent an efficient means to modify the properties of surfaces by covering them with an uniform monomolecular layer. Because of weak intermolecular interactions, SAMs cannot exist without a substrate as support. However, if these films consist of an aromatic framework, they can be laterally cross-linked by electron irradiation and persist as a freestanding membrane after the removal from the substrate. If, additionally, nitro-substituted aromatic molecules are used, they can be not only cross-linked by the irradiation but also reduced to reactive amines which can serve as binding sites for further species. As such species we used poly(ethylene glycols), which made the resulting bilayer protein-repelling. Using this approach, we prepared an ultrathin, mechanically stable and protein-repelling membrane which can be used as highly transparent support in transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Whereas the low Z character and ultimate thinness (ca. 5 nm) of this support guarantees high imaging quality, protein-repelling ensures the lack of protein denaturing, which extend the possibilities of TEM experiments in their applications to sensitive biological targets.