Conformational study of protein interactions with hydrogen-passivated amorphous silicon surfaces: Effect of pH

Abstract The adsorption of Bovine Serum Albumin (BSA) proteins on amorphous silicon (a-Si) surfaces was studied with respect to solution pH. Thin films of a-Si were deposited using radio-frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature and then treated in a hydrogen ambient to form a hydrogenated a-Si surface layer (a-Si:H). The interactions of the as-deposited and hydrogenated surfaces with the proteins at neutral, acidic, and basic environments was probed by means of Fourier transform infrared attenuated total reflection (FTIR-ATR) spectroscopy, Spectroscopic Ellipsometry (SE), and Atomic Force Microscopy (AFM), to study the influence of the charge of proteins on their adsorption and conformation on the a-Si:H surface, compared with the a-Si surface. The results show that the charge of the proteins has a significant effect on their interactions with these two substrates but in dissimilar ways. For the as-deposited substrate, these interactions are predictably coulombic since the surface is charged. For the hydrogenated substrate, the adsorption of the proteins depends on their conformation which is heavily affected by pH, and the size of their footprint (adsorption mode) on the surface.