A subscription to JoVE is required to view this content. Sign in or start your free trial.
Interfacial Molecular-level Structures of Polymers and Biomacromolecules Revealed via Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy
In This Article
Summary
Being comprehensively utilized, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy can help to reveal chain conformational order and secondary structural change happening at polymer and biomacromolecule interfaces.
Abstract
As a second-order nonlinear optical spectroscopy, sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy has widely been used in investigating various surfaces and interfaces. This non-invasive optical technique can provide the local molecular-level information with monolayer or submonolayer sensitivity. We here are providing experimental methodology on how to selectively detect the buried interface for both macromolecules and biomacromolecules. With this in mind, interfacial secondary structures of silk fibroin and water structures around model short-chain oligonucleotide duplex are discussed. The former shows a chain-chain overlap or spatial confinement effect and the latter shows a protection function against the Ca2+ ions resulting from the chiral spine superstructure of water.
Introduction
Development of sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy can be dated back to the work done by Shen et al. thirty years ago1,2. The uniqueness of the interfacial selectivity and sub-monolayer sensitivity makes SFG vibrational spectroscopy appreciated by a large number of researchers in the fields of physics, chemistry, biology, and materials science, etc3,4,5. Currently, a broad range of scientific issues related to surfaces and interfaces are being investigated using SFG, especially for complex interfac....
Protocol
1. SFG experimental
- Use a commercial picosecond SFG system (Table of Materials), which provides a fundamental 1064 nm beam with a pulse width of ~20 ps and a frequency of 50 Hz, based on an Nd:YAG laser.
- Convert the fundamental 1064 nm beam into a 532 nm beam and a 355 nm beam by using second and third harmonic modules. Directly guide the 532 nm beam as an input light beam and generate the other input mid-infrared (IR) beam covering the frequency range from 1000 to .......
Representative Results
In the Fresnel coefficient part of Protocol Section, we have shown that, theoretically, it is feasible to selectively detect only one single interface at one time. Here, experimentally, we confirmed that this methodology is basically correct, as shown in Figure 5 and Figure 6.Â
Figure 5 shows the buried interfacial PHEMA structure after water intrusion with a ~150 nm PHEMA hydrogel film and
Discussion
To investigate the structural information from a molecular level, SFG has its inherent advantages (i.e., monolayer or sub-monolayer sensitivity and interfacial selectivity), which can be applied to study various interfaces, such as the solid/solid, solid/liquid, solid/gas, liquid/gas, liquid/liquid interfaces. Although the equipment maintenance and the optical alignment are still time-consuming, the payoff is significant in that the detailed molecular-level information at the surfaces and interfaces can be obtained.
.......Acknowledgements
This study was supported by the State Key Development Program for Basic Research of China (2017YFA0700500) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21574020). The Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities, a project funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD) and the National Demonstration Center for Experimental Biomedical Engineering Education (Southeast University) were also greatly appreciated.
....Materials
| Name | Company | Catalog Number | Comments |
| 1,2-dipalmitoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (DPPC)Â | Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc. | 850355P-1g | |
| Anhydrous ethanol | Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd | 100092680 | ≥99.7% |
| CaF2 prism | Chengdu YaSi Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. | ||
| Calcium chloride anhydrous | Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd | 10005817 | ≥96.0% |
| deuterated DPPC (d-DPPC) | Avanti Polar Lipids, Inc. | 860345P-100mg | |
| Electromagnetic oven | Zhejiang Supor Co., Ltd | C21-SDHCB37 | |
| Langmuir-Blodgett (LB) trough | KSV NIMA Co., Ltd. | KN 2003 | |
| Lithium bromide anhydrous | Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd | 20056926 | |
| Milli-Q synthesis system | Millipore | Ultrapure water | |
| Plasma cleaner | Chengdu Mingheng Science&Technology Co., Ltd | PDC-MG | Oxygen plasma cleaning |
| Poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) (PHEMA) | Sigma-Aldrich Co., LLC. | 192066 MSDS | Mw = 300 000 |
| Polystyrene | Sigma-Aldrich Co., LLC. | 330345 MSDS | Mw = 48 kDa and Mn = 47 kDa |
| Silk cocoons | From Bombyx mori | ||
| Single complementary strand of oligonucleotide | Nanjing Genscript Biotechnology Co., Ltd. | H03596 | 5'-CGAAGGCTTCCAGCT-3' |
| Single strand of oligonucleotide | Nanjing Genscript Biotechnology Co., Ltd. | H04936 |  3¢-end modified by cholesterol-triethylene glycol(Chol-TEG) (5¢-GCTTCCGAAGGTCGA-3¢) |
| Sodium carbonate anhydrous | Sinopharm Chemical Reagent Co., Ltd | 10019260 | ≥99.8% |
| Spin-coater | Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences | KW-4A | For the prepartion of ploymer films |
| Step profiler | Veeco | DEKTAK 150 | For the measurement of film thickness |
| Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy system | EKSPLA | A commercial picosecond SFG system |
References
- Shen, Y. R. Optical Second Harmonic Generation at Interfaces. Annual Review of Physical Chemistry. 40, 327-350 (1989).
- Shen, Y. R. Surface properties probed by second-harmonic and sum-frequency generation.
This article has been published
Video Coming Soon
ABOUT JoVE
Copyright © 2024 MyJoVE Corporation. All rights reserved