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Updated: Jun 6, 2026

Covalent Attachment of Single Molecules for AFM-based Force Spectroscopy
Published on: March 16, 2020
Directly observed Au-S bond breakage due to swelling of the anchored polyelectrolyte
Yanxia Zhang1, Jian'an He, Ying Zhu
1Suzhou Institute of Nano-Tech and Nano-Bionics, Chinese Academy of Science, Suzhou, 21513, P. R. China.
Abstract:
A weak polyelectrolyte coating, carboxylated poly(oligo(ethylene glycol)methacrylate-co-2-hydroxyethylmethacrylate), was prepared via surface initiated polymerization (SIP) from initiators immobilized to gold surface through the Au-S bonds. When dry thickness increased up to 75 nm, this polyelectrolyte coating was pulled off the Au substrate by simply exposing to phosphate buffer saline (PBS, pH = 7.4, [Na(+)] = 150 mM). This covalent bond breaking (CBB) behavior was monitored in situ using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) and CBB was associated with the swelling of the anchored polyelectrolyte chains.
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