Direct characterization of native chemical ligation of peptides on silicon nanowires

We describe the site-specific and chemoselective immobilization of peptides on hydrogen-terminated silicon nanowires (SiNWs) using native chemical ligation (NCL) (i.e., the reaction of a thioester group with a cysteine moiety to give a stable amide bond). The SiNWs investigated in this work were grown via a vapor-liquid-solid mechanism and functionalized with a thioester moiety. The immobilization of the peptides on the SiNWs was demonstrated by synthesizing peptides with an N-terminal cysteine residue and labeled with tetramethylrhodamine or trifluoromethyl groups that were detected by fluorescence and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The peptides labeled with tetramethylrhodamine or trifluoromethyl groups for fluorescence or X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) detection studies were synthesized with an N-terminal cysteine residue. N-Terminal seryl peptides and carboxy-terminated SiNWs were used as controls to demonstrate the chemoselectivity of the peptide immobilization.