Research Highlight #19:

Quartz Binding Peptides as Molecular Linkers towards Fabricating Multifunctional Micropatterned Substrates

T. Kacar, J. Ray, M. Gungormus, E. E. Oren, C. Tamerler and M. Sarikaya;
Materials Science & Engineering and Microbiology, University of Washington

We demonstrate micropatterning of two different photoactive target molecules, e.g. fluorescent quantum dot nanocrystals (red) and fluorescein (green), on quartz surface immobilized using quartz binding peptides as linkers and targeting molecules. The fabrication process incorporates a combination of microcontact printing and directed self-assembly processes successively. The patterned substrates were examined under fluorescence microscopy to demonstrate the bifunctionality and the quality of the pattern fabrication. Our results show that the attachment of quantum dots or photoactive molecule on a substrate is material-specific. The approach allows co-assembly of diverse multifunctional molecular and nanoentities on micropatterned substrates, all at ambient conditions, and would potentially be a utility in efficient formation of microarrays without the limitations associated with the conventional silane-based chemical methods.

Contact C. Tamerler, for more details, candan@u.washington.edu.

Advanced Materials, in print (May 2009).