Surface functionalization of Au nanorods: Effects of local curvature, polymer chemistry, andpolymer architecture

GONZALEZ SOLVEYRA, ESTEFANIA; SZLEIFER, IGAL

Chicago

Simposio; Current Research & Future Careers Symposium; 2018

Northwestern University

Interactions at the bio/nano interface determine the fate of gold nanorods (Au-NRs) for biomedicalapplications. In this work we apply a molecular theory to study the effect of local curvature on the surfacefunctionalization of Au-NRs with polymer mixtures comprising linear and branched polypeptoids, with branchescontaining biotin groups (Fig. 1). We perform systematic calculations on the adsorption and streptavidin-biotin bindingprocesses (Fig. 1) varying the backbone length, number of branches, monomer type, and solution conditions.Surface density of each polymer in the mixture is position dependent, and it can be tuned by changing the mixturepair, as shown in Fig. 2: in both mixtures, the linear polymer is the same, however its adsorption changes drasticallywhen changing the monomer size of the branched polymer. Local curvature and molecular details of the mixture alsoaffect the binding of streptavidin to the biotin-conjugated NR.