Surface Force Measurement Using SAM or Protein-Coated Probes

Abstract

A glass sphere is coated with self-assembled monolayer (SAM) to be a probe for surface force measurement, so that the surface energy of the probe is adjusted with keeping its surface morphologies. Some specific probes with different surface energy are useful to characterize surface force of sample. It is demonstrated that surface force between two samples is indirectly estimated by surface forces of each sample measured by two probes with different surface energy. The glass sphere of probe is also covered with protein molecules by contact printing, as it is previously coated with APTES-SAM as an intermediate layer. Surface force measured by the protein-coated probe allow us to quantitatively evaluate adhesiveness of protein to a sample surface.