Combining surface sensitive vibrational spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy to study biological interfaces

Abstract

A multimodal system combining surface sensitive sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy and total-internal reflection fluorescence (TIRF) microscopy for surface and interface study was developed. Interfacial molecular structural information can be detected using SFG spectroscopy while interfacial fluorescence signal can be visualized using TIRF microscopy from the same sample. As a proof of concept experiment, SFG spectra of fluorescent polystyrene (PS) beads with different surface coverage were correlated with TIRF signal observed. Results showed that SFG signals from the ordered surfactant methyl groups were detected from the substrate surface, while signals from PS phenyl groups on the beads were not seen. Additionally, a lipid monolayer labeled using lipid-associated dye was deposited on a silica substrate and studied in different environments. The contact with water of this lipid monolayer caused SFG signal to disappear, indicating a possible lipid molecular disorder and the formation of lipid bilayers or liposomes in water. TIRF was able to visualize the presence of lipid molecules on the substrate, showing that the lipids were not removed from the substrate surface by water. The integration of the two surface sensitive techniques can simultaneously visualize interfacial molecular dynamics and characterize interfacial molecular structures in situ, which is important and is expected to find extensive applications in biological interface related research.