Immobilization of Proteins on Gold Surfaces

Gold has been a widely used support for protein immobilization in a nonspecific way through electrostatic and hydrophobic interactions. As no tools are available to predict the binding of proteins of biological interest to gold supports—for either nano, micro, or macroscopic sizes—smart, reliable, and reproducible protein immobilization protocols on gold are sought. This chapter will focus on a synthetic strategy which allows for the development of a multiplicity of architectures on gold that may be used for protein immobilization. Because of its simplicity, both from a conceptual and a practical point of view, the strategy demonstrated by this step-by-step synthesis of a functionally self-assembled monolayer (SAM) of thiols on gold is accessible to most laboratories working on enzyme technology, even those with limited organic synthesis facilities.