Microarrays are a versatile platform for diagnostics and high-throughput analysis. Carbohydrate microarrays are valuable tools to investigate interactions with other molecules since many glycans are involved in fundamental biological processes. A combined X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) surface analysis was used to investigate the basic steps in the production of carbohydrate microarrays. The preparation included coupling of a thiol-terminated mannoside to maleimide-functionalized glass surfaces derived from γ-aminopropyl silane (GAPS) slides. XPS results clearly demonstrate successful chemical modification in each fabrication step, and ToF-SIMS imaging revealed immobilized carbohydrates in the spotted regions of the final microarray.
Methods for characterization of epoxy-functionalized substrates used for microarray applications, prepared by silanization with 3-glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane, have been developed. Contact angle measurements, X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, time of flight secondary ion mass spectrometry and fluorescence based methods have been applied to investigate these epoxy-functionalized microarray substrates. The surface density of epoxy-functionalized glass slides was investigated by fluorescence labeling of surface species utilizing Rhodamine 110 as fluorescence probe.
Functionalised surfaces are of interest in many fields, e.g. in biomedicine, materials science and molecular electronics. In this study a series of self-assembled aliphatic and aromatic monolayers on gold substrates with terminal amino groups was investigated. Four different thiol molecules were used: aliphatic 11-aminoundecane-1-thiol (AUDT), aromatic 4-aminobenzenethiol (ABT) and aromatic ω-amino thiols with an alkyl spacer as 4-aminophenylbutane-1-thiol (APBT) and 3-(4''-amino-1,1':4',1''-terphenyl-4-yl)propane-1-thiol (ATPT). Evaluation of N 1s XPS data revealed that on the aromatic self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) amino groups exist preferentially as primary amines, whereas on the aliphatic SAM protonated and/or hydrogen-bonded amines are the major species. This result is crosschecked by N K edge near edge X-ray absorption fine structure (NEXAFS) spectroscopy and can be rationalised by the different basicity of aliphatic and aromatic amines.