Antifouling surfaces for proteins labeled with dye-doped silica nanoparticles

We report that proteins labeled with fluorescein-doped silica nanoparticles (FSNPs) showed drastically different fouling behavior than those labeled with the fluorescein dye. Arrays of polymer films were covalently immobilized on silicon wafers and were treated with protein conjugated on FSNPs. Fluorescence imaging showed that the protein-FSNP conjugate adsorbed strongly on hydrophilic polymers such as poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO) and weakly on hydrophobic polymers such as polystyrene (PS), and the extent of adsorption decreased with increasing hydrophobicity of the polymer film. Thus, carbohydrate microarrays probed with FSNP-labeled lectin showed significantly enhanced signals when PS was used as the antifouling coating than when PEO was used, or when using bovine serum albumin as the blocking agent.