Elimination of aggregates of ferredoxin from its self-assembled monolayer on silicon substrate

The self-assembled ferredoxin monolayer onto the (100) surface of the silicon substrate was prepared and the nonspecifically adsorbed aggregates of ferredoxin on the substrate were successfully eliminated by using a zwitterionic surfactant, 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl) dimethylammonio]-1-propanesulfonate (CHAPS). The AFM image of the self-assembled ferredoxin monolayer on the silicon substrate treated with CHAPS clearly shows that the size of ferredoxin clusters is about 20-30 nm, which is on the order of an aggregate of about five ferredoxin molecules, whereas the size of ferredoxin aggregates on the substrate without CHAPS treatment was measured to be about 100-200 nm. Those results offer a useful method for the elimination of the nonspecific adsorption of proteins onto inorganic substrates, which has been a long-term problem in the fabrication of biomolecular electronic devices by the self-assembly technique.