Photo-responsive anti-fouling polyzwitterionic brushes: a mesoscopic simulation

The antifouling effects of a toothbrush-shaped photo-responsive polyzwitterionic membrane were studied via dissipative particle dynamics simulations in this work. The results reveal that the membrane modified by spiropyran methacrylate brushes displays photo-switchable and antifouling capability due to the photo-induced ring-opening reaction. Namely, surface morphology and hydrophilicity change in response to visible or UV light irradiation, which can be observed visually by protein adsorption and desorption. Further study indicates that: (1) brush-modification density can influence the structure and properties of the membrane. With low modification density, systems cannot establish an intact selective layer, which hinders the antifouling ability; as the modification density increases, the intact selective layer can be formed, which is conducive to the expression of photo-responsiveness and antifouling capability. (2) Factors of toothbrush-hair length and grafting ratio can influence the establishment of a light-responsive surface: as the grafting ratio and toothbrush-hair length increase, the light-responsive surface is gradually formed, meanwhile, the antifouling ability can be continuously reinforced under UV light irradiation. (3) As the brushes switch into a zwitterionic merocyanine state under UV exposure, the selective layer swelling becomes stronger than that with a hydrophobic spiropyran state under visible exposure. This is owing to the enhanced interaction between zwitterionic brushes and water, which is the root of the antifouling effect. The present work is expected to provide some guidelines for the design and development of novel antifouling membrane surfaces.

Protein Adsorption on Mixed Self-Assembled Monolayers: Influence of Chain Length and Terminal Group

Mixed self-assembled monolayers (SAMs) are often used as highly tunable substrates for biomedical and biosensing applications. It is well documented, however, that mixed SAMs can be highly disordered at the molecular level and do not pack as closely or homogeneously as single-component SAMs, particularly when the chain lengths and head groups of the SAM thiol components are significantly different. In this study, we explore the impact of SAM structure and mixing ratio (-OH and -CH3 termini) on the weak physisorption behavior of bovine serum albumin (BSA), which adsorbs more readily to hydrophobic, methyl-terminated SAMs. Our results suggest that once the mixture includes 50% or more of the methyl terminus, the mixing ratio alone is a relatively good predictor of adsorption, regardless of the relative chain lengths of the thiols used in the mixture. This trend persists at any mixing ratio for SAMs where methyl- and hydroxyl-terminated groups are the same length or where the hydroxyl-terminated thiol is longer. The only variance observed is at low mixing ratios (<50% methyl-terminated) for a mixed SAM where the methyl-terminated component has a longer chain length. Relative protein adsorption increases on these mixtures, perhaps due to the disordered exposure of the excess alkane backbone. Taken together, however, we do not find significant evidence that varying chain lengths for mixed SAMs prepared on polycrystalline substrates and analyzed in air have an outsized influence on nanoscopic adsorption behavior, despite molecular-level disorder in the SAM itself.

Spontaneous desorption of protein from self-assembled monolayer (SAM)-coated gold nanoparticles induced by high temperature

The nonspecific binding of proteins with nanomaterials (NMs) is a dynamic reversible process including both protein adsorption and desorption parts, which is crucial for controlled release of protein drug loaded by nanocarriers. The nonspecific binding of proteins is susceptible to high temperature, whereas its underlying mechanism still remains elusive. Here, the binding behavior of human serum albumin (HSA) with an amino-terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM)-coated gold (111) surface was investigated by using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. HSA binds to the SAM surface through salt bridges at 300 K. As the temperature increases to 350 K, HSA maintains its native structure, while the salt bridges largely diminish owing to the considerable lateral diffusion of HSA on the SAM. Moreover, the interfacial water located between HSA and the SAM gets increased and prevents the reformation of the salt bridges of HSA with the SAM, which reduces the binding affinity of HSA. And HSA eventually desorbs from the SAM. The depiction of thermally induced spontaneous protein desorption enriches our understanding of reversible binding behavior of protein with NMs, and may provide new insights into the controlled release of protein drugs delivered by using nanocarriers under the regulation of high temperature.

Dynamic behaviors of interfacial water on the self-assembly monolayer (SAM) heterogeneous surface

Dynamic behaviors of water molecules near the surface with mixed hydrophobic and hydrophilic areas are studied by molecular dynamics simulation. More specifically, the diffusion coefficient and hydrogen bond lifetime of interfacial water on the self-assembly monolayer composed of hydrophobic and hydrophilic groups and their dependence on the mixing ratio are studied. The diffusion dramatically slows down, and the hydrogen bond lifetime considerably increases when a few hydrophilic groups are added to the hydrophobic surface. When the percentage of hydrophilic groups increases to 25%, the behavior of interfacial water is similar to the case of the pure hydrophilic surface. The sensitivity to the hydrophilic group can be attributed to the fact that the grafted hydrophilic groups can not only retard the directly bound water molecules but also affect indirectly bound water by stabilizing hydrogen bonds among interfacial water molecules.

Effects of the surface polarity of nanomaterials on their interaction with complement protein gC1q

The dependence of the recognition mode of gC1q on the surface polarity of nanomaterials is mainly attributed to its distinct surface residue composition.