Preparation of flat gold terraces for protein chip developments

Céline Elie-Caille (1) , Jean-Yves Rauch (1) , Alain Rouleau (1) , Wilfrid Boireau (1)

1 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)

A simple method to prepare flat gold terraces on mica for atomic force microscopy biomolecular characterisation is described. The procedure includes preheating of the substrate, metal deposition and an annealing step. All of these steps are at elevated temperatures (300–420°C). This approach allows one to prepare large flat gold terraces (200– 500 nm), which constitute ideal substrates for visualisation and characterisation of a self-assembly monolayer of biomolecules at the nanoscale. The authors illustrated this potential of characterisation with the reconstitution of a protein monolayer.

Mots clés: atomic force microscopy; gold annealing; flat terrasses; protein grafting

Domaines: Micro et nanotechnologies/Microélectronique

Céline Elie-Caille, Jean-Yves Rauch, Alain Rouleau, Wilfrid Boireau. Preparation of flat gold terraces for protein chip developments. Micro and Nano Letters, 2009, 4 (2), pp.88-94. ⟨hal-00447012⟩