Silane-Based SAMs Deposited by Spin Coating as a Versatile Alternative Process to Solution Immersion.

Functionalization of silica surfaces with silane-based self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) is widely used in material sciences to tune surface properties and introduce terminal functional groups enabling subsequent chemical surface reactions and immobilization of (bio)molecules. Here, we report on the synthesis of four organotrimethoxysilanes with various molecular structures and we compare their grafting by spin coating with the one performed by the conventional solution immersion method. Strikingly, this study clearly demonstrates that the spin coating technique is a versatile, fast, and more convenient alternative process to prepare robust, smooth, and homogeneous SAMs with similar properties and quality as those deposited via immersion.

PIP Phospholipid-Induced Aggregation of Tau Filaments Probed by Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy.

The morphology and secondary structure of peptide fibers formed by aggregation of tubulin-associated unit (Tau) fragments (K18), in the presence of the inner cytoplasmic membrane phosphatidylinositol component (PIP ) or heparin sodium (HS) as cofactors, are determined with nanoscale (<10 nm) spatial resolution. By means of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS), the inclusion of PIP lipids in fibers is determined based on the observation of specific C=O ester vibration modes. Moreover, analysis of amide I and amide III bands suggests that the parallel β-sheet secondary structure content is lower and the random coil content is higher for fibers grown from the PIP cofactor instead of HS.

Electron Flow in Large Metallomacromolecules and Electronic Switching of Nanoparticle Stabilization: Click Ferrocenyl Dentromers that Reduce Au to Au Nanoparticles.

Click ferrocenyl-terminal dentromers, a family of arene-cored dendrimers with triple branching (9-Fc, 27-Fc, 81-Fc, and 243-Fc), reduce Au to ferricinium dentromer-stabilized Au nanoparticles (AuNPs). Cyclic voltammetry studies in CH Cl show reversible CV waves with some adsorption for the 243-Fc dentromer and the number of redox groups found, 255±25, by using the Bard-Anson method, is close to the theoretical number of 243. The dentromers reduce aqueous HAuCl to water-soluble ferricinium chloride dentromer-stabilized AuNPs with core sizes between 30 and 47 nm.

Tip-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy to Distinguish Toxic Oligomers from Aβ Fibrils at the Nanometer Scale.

For the first time, natural Aβ fibrils (WT) implicated in Alzheimer's disease, as well as two synthetic mutants forming less toxic amyloid fibrils (L34T) and highly toxic oligomers (oG37C), are chemically characterized at the scale of a single structure using tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). While the proportion of TERS features associated with amino acid residues is similar for the three peptides, a careful examination of amide I and amide III bands allows us to clearly distinguish WT and L34T fibers organized in parallel β-sheets from the small and more toxic oG37C oligomers organized in anti-parallel β-sheets.