Infrared reflectance spectroscopic and atomic force microscopic characterizations of the assembly of gold nanoparticles on planar surfaces via amino acid interactions

COLL 224

Derrick Mott, dmott1@binghamton.edu, Benjamin Cotts, Stephanie Lim, Wai-Pan Chan, Hye-Young Park, Jin Luo, and Chuan-Jian Zhong, cjzhong@binghamton.edu. Department of Chemistry, State University of New York at Binghamton, Binghamton, NY 13902
Interparticle amino acid interactions have been found to play an important role for the amino acid mediated assembly of nanoparticles. The understanding of the interactions at a molecular level is important for exploring their potential applications in sensors and biosensors. In this presentation, recent findings of a study of the homocysteine-mediated assembly of gold nanoparticles on planar gold substrates will be discussed. The nanoparticle assemblies are characterized using infrared reflectance spectroscopy (IRS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) techniques. The IRS and AFM characterization results provide important information for determining the structural and morphological properties of the nanoparticle assemblies. The results are useful for the correlation between the structure of the amino acids and the resulting morphology of the nanoparticle assembly. Implications of the findings to the understanding of the detailed interparticle interactions involving amino acids, proteins and DNAs will also be discussed.