Polymeric Coating of Silica Microspheres for Biological Applications: Suppression of Non-Specific Binding and Functionalization with Biomolecules

Abstract

The use of micro-and nanoparticles in biological applications has dramatically grown during the last few decades due to the ease of protocols development and compatibility with microflu-idics devices. Particles can be composed by different materials, i.e., polymers, inorganic dielectrics, and metals. Among them, silica is a suitable material for the development of biosensing applica-tions. Depending on their final application, the surface properties of particles, including silica, are tailored by means of chemical modification or polymeric coating. The latter strategy represents a powerful tool to create a hydrophilic environment that enables the functionalization of particles with biomolecules and the further interaction with analytes. Here, the use of MCP-6, a dimethylacrylamide (DMA)-based ter-copolymer, to coat silica microspheres is presented. MCP-6 offers unprecedented ease of coating, imparting silica particles a hydrophilic coating with antifouling properties that is able to provide high-density immobilization of biological probes.