Immobilization of antibodies on biosensing devices by nanoarrayed self-assembled monolayers

This work presents an original and straightforward technique for antibody immobilization onto a surface, keeping the antibody in a biologically reactive configuration. Self-assembly of molecular monolayers and plasma-based colloidal lithography were combined to create chemical nanopatterns on the surface of a biosensing device. This technique was employed to create an array of 100 nm wide motifs having a hexagonal 2-D crystalline structure, characterized by COOH-terminated nanospots in a CH3-terminated matrix. The quality control of the chemical nanopattern was carried out by combining atomic force microscopy, ellipsometry, and contact angle measurements. Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay experiments were set up showing that the COOH/CH3 nanopatterned surface constrains the immobilization of the antibodies in a biologically reactive configuration, thus significantly improving the device performances as compared to those of more conventional nonpatterned COOH-terminated or CH3-terminated surfaces.