Determination of Au Film Thiolation and Silane Bonding Onto SiO2 Films Within the Frame of Biosensor Surface Functionalization – an Analysis of Best Practices and Techniques

This paper reviews some of the most common surface modification approaches in biosensing based on self-assembled monolayers with a particular focus on Au film thiolation and SiO2 film silanization. Such approaches are routinely used to alter the materials’ surface properties towards a desired bioresponse. Furthermore, the most appropriate characterization methods towards ensuring successful surface modification are presented including XPS, HREELS, SPFS, Raman and FTIR spectroscopy as well as UPS with specific examples to demonstrate their importance. In addition, the mechanisms of fluorescent and non-fluorescent biotinylation of thiolated Au films and silanized SiO2 are discussed considering its importance in conjugating biomolecules such as enzymes, antibodies or chemokines onto surfaces, which carries high significance for biosensing applications. Finally, within this frame characterization routes towards ensuring effective attachment are discussed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy for Molecular Identification- a Review on Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR) and Localised Surface Plasmon Resonance (LSPR) in Optical Nanobiosensing

Surface plasmon resonance (SPR) allows for real-time, label-free optical detection of many chemical and biological substances. Having emerged in the last two decades, it is a widely used technique due to its non-invasive nature, allowing for the ultra-sensitive detection of a number of analytes. This review article discusses the principles, providing examples and illustrating the utility of SPR within the frame of plasmonic nanobiosensing, while making comparisons with its successor, namely localized surface plasmon resonance (LSPR). In particular LSPR utilizes both metal nanoparticle arrays and single nanoparticles, as compared to a continuous film of gold as used in traditional SPR. LSPR, utilizes metal nanoparticle arrays or single nanoparticles that have smaller sizes than the wavelength of the incident light, measuring small changes in the wavelength of the absorbance position, rather than the angle as in SPR. We introduce LSPR nanobiosensing by describing the initial experiments performed, shift-enhancement methods, exploitation of the short electromagnetic field decay length, and single nanoparticle sensors are as pathways to further exploit the strengths of LSPR nanobiosensing. Coupling molecular identification to LSPR spectroscopy is also explored and thus examples from surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy are provided. The unique characteristics of LSPR nanobiosensing are emphasized and the challenges using LSPR nanobiosensors for detection of biomolecules as a biomarker are discussed. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

A Comprehensive Study of N-Butyl-1H-Benzimidazole

Imidazole derivatives have found wide application in organic and medicinal chemistry. In particular, benzimidazoles have proven biological activity as antiviral, antimicrobial, and antitumor agents. In this work, we experimentally and theoretically investigated N-Butyl-1H-benzimidazole. It has been shown that the presence of a butyl substituent in the N position does not significantly affect the conjugation and structural organization of benzimidazole. The optimized molecular parameters were performed by the DFT/B3LYP method with 6-311++G(d,p) basis set. This level of theory shows excellent concurrence with the experimental data. The non-covalent interactions that existed within our compound N-Butyl-1H-benzimidazole were also analyzed by the AIM, RDG, ELF, and LOL topological methods. The color shades of the ELF and LOL maps confirm the presence of bonding and non-bonding electrons in N-Butyl-1H-benzimidazole. From DFT calculations, various methods such as molecular electrostatic potential (MEP), Fukui functions, Mulliken atomic charges, and frontier molecular orbital (HOMO-LUMO) were characterized. Furthermore, UV-Vis absorption and natural bond orbital (NBO) analysis were calculated. It is shown that the experimental and theoretical spectra of N-Butyl-1H-benzimidazole have a peak at 248 nm; in addition, the experimental spectrum has a peak near 295 nm. The NBO method shows that the delocalization of the aσ-electron from σ (C1–C2) is distributed into antibonding σ* (C1–C6), σ* (C1–N26), and σ* (C6–H11), which leads to stabilization energies of 4.63, 0.86, and 2.42 KJ/mol, respectively. Spectroscopic investigations of N-Butyl-1H-benzimidazole were carried out experimentally and theoretically to find FTIR vibrational spectra. © 2022 by the authors

Investigations of the structural, morphological and electrical properties of multilayer ZnO/TiO2 thin films, deposited by sol–gel technique

Investigations of the structural, morphological and electrical properties of multilayer ZnO/TiO2 thin films deposited by sol–gel technique on glass substrate. Sol–gel is a technique in which compound is dissolved in a liquid in order to bring it back as a solid in a controlled manner. TiO2 solution was obtained by dissolving 0.4 g of TiO2 nano powder in 5 ml ethanol and 5 ml diethylene glycol. ZnO solution was obtained by dissolving 0.88 g zinc acetate in 20 ml of 2-methoxyethanol. X-ray diffraction (XRD) (PW 3050/60 PANalytical X’Pert PRO diffractometer) results showed that the crystallinity is improved when the number of ZnO/TiO2 layers increased. Also it shows the three phases (rutile, anatase and brookite) of TiO2. Surface morphology measured by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) (Quanta 250 fei) revealed that Crakes are present on the surface of ZnO/TiO2 thin films which are decreased when the number of ZnO/TiO2 layers increased. Four point probe (KIETHLEY instrument) technique used to investigate the electrical properties of ZnO/TiO2 showed the average resistivity decreased by increasing the number of ZnO/TiO2 layers. These results indicated that the multilayer thin films improved the quality of film crystallinity and electrical properties as compared to single layer. Keywords: Semiconductors, Sol–gel, XRD, SEM, Four point prob

Comprehensive Study of the Ammonium Sulfamate–Urea Binary System

The physicochemical properties of binary systems are of great importance for the application of the latter. We report on the investigation of an ammonium sulfamate–urea binary system with different component ratios using a combination of experimental (FTIR, XRD, TGA/DSC, and melting point) and theoretical (DFT, QTAIM, ELF, RDG, ADMP, etc.) techniques. It is shown that, at a temperature of 100 °C, the system under study remains thermally and chemically stable for up to 30 min. It was established using X-ray diffraction analysis that the heating time barely affects the X-ray characteristics of the system. Data on the aggregate states in specified temperature ranges were obtained with thermal analysis and determination of the melting point. The structures of the ammonium sulfamate–urea system with different component ratios were optimized within the density functional theory. The atom-centered density matrix propagation calculation of the ammonium sulfamate–urea system with different component ratios was performed at temperatures of 100, 300, and 500 K. Regardless of the component ratio, a regular increase in the potential energy variation (curve amplitude) with an increase in temperature from 100 to 500 K was found