Interaction of amino acids and water on oxide surfaces

Research project P 14580 P 14580 - Interaction of amino acids and water on oxide surfaces Falko P. NETZER 09.10.2000 The interaction of biomolecules with water plays a central role in many surface and interface phenomena, such as self assembly, micelle formation, biological membrane structure, and in determining the conformation of proteins. Amino acids are the simplest building blocks of protein and therefore good, model. systems for biomolecules in studying biological surface interactions, problems of biocompatibility and the behaviour of biomaterials, in general. In this project the coadsorption of simple amino acids (glycine, alanine, phenylalanine, cystine) with water on oxide surfaces will be studied to investigate the competitive bond making and bond breaking processes in coadsorbed amino acid - water layers. Characterisation of the molecular structure, conformation and crystallinity of ultrathin water and organic layers prepared by controlled deposition on well-defined oxide substrate surffices under ultrahigh vacuum conditions will be the major goal of this project. The nanoscale precision of modem methods of surface physics will be exploited to provide a detailed molecular picture of the structure of amino acids in the presence of water and of the influence of the substrate on the water/amino acid interaction.. This "surface science approach" to study water-biomolecule. inteiactions has a number of advantages over the more conventional studies in the chemical and biological sciences, which are typically performed under. ambient atmosphere, since, it allows a precise control of the individual parameters of the interactions, which is necessary to achieve an atomic-level understanding of the complex water-organic interface interactions. Many complementary surface science techniques elucidating geometrical orientation, electronic energy: level structure and vibrational properties will be applied in situ. to unravel the influence of the molecular functionalities on the local structure of water and the reciprocal response of the organic molecules to the presence of water. This proposal is part of the CERC3 initiative on the research theme "Molecules at complex surfaces: Bond forming, bond breaking, dynamics", which has been lauched by the Chairmen of the European Research Councils Chemistry Committees (CERC3) to promote European transnational research. The coordinator of the topic "Water interacting with organic. molecules on solid surfaces" is Professor Neville V. Richardson, Department of Chemistry, of the University of St. Andrews.