Measurement of Peptide Coating Thickness and Chemical Composition Using XPS

X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy is a highly surface-sensitive analytical technique, capable of providing quantitative information on the chemical composition of materials within the top ∼10 nm of their surface. For samples consisting of distinct underlayer and overlayer materials, the thickness of the coating can also be determined if it falls within this ∼10 nm information depth, which is often the case for peptide layers. Such measurements are simple to perform for flat samples and can also be performed on nanoparticulate samples provided that either the core radius or total particle radius are known. Here, we describe a straightforward protocol for obtaining such measurements from peptide coatings on both flat surfaces and nanoparticles, including preparation of nanoparticle samples from suspension, data acquisition, and analysis.