Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation Spectroscopy Study of Nanoscale to Mesoscale Polarity and Orientation of Crystalline Biopolymers in Natural Materials.

Elucidating molecular mechanisms of two-dimensional chemical reactions

High-pressure catalytic reactions and associated processes, such as adsorption have been studied on a molecular level on single crystal surfaces. Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy together with Auger Electron Spectroscopy (AES), Temperature Programmed Desorption (TPD) and Gas Chromatography (GC) were used to investigate the nature of species on catalytic surfaces and to measure the catalytic reaction rates. Special attention has been directed at studying high-pressure reactions and in particular, ammonia synthesis in order to identify reaction intermediates and the influence of adsorbates on the surface during reaction conditions. The adsorption of gases N<sub>2</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>, O<sub>2</sub> and NH<sub>3</sub> that play a role in ammonia synthesis have been studied on the Fe(111) crystal surface by sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy using an integrated Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV)/high-pressure system. SFG spectra are presented for the dissociation intermediates, NH<sub>2</sub> (~3325 cm<sup>-1</sup>) and NH (~3235 cm<sup>-1</sup>) under high pressure of ammonia (200 Torr) on the clean Fe(111) surface. Addition of 0.5 Torr of oxygen to 200 Torr of ammonia does not significantly change the bonding of dissociation intermediates to the surface. However, it leads to a phase change of nearly 180° between the resonant and non-resonant second order non-linear susceptibility of the surface, demonstrated by the reversal of the SFG spectral features. Heating the surface in the presence of 200 Torr ammonia and 0.5 Torr oxygen reduces the oxygen coverage, which can be seen from the SFG spectra as another relative phase change of 180°. The reduction of the oxide is also supported by Auger electron spectroscopy. The result suggests that the phase change of the spectral features could serve as a sensitive indicator of the chemical environment of the adsorbates.

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and other complementary surface-sensitive techniques have been used to study the surface molecular structure and surface mechanical behavior of biologically-relevant polymer systems. SFG and AFM have emerged as powerful analytical tools to deduce structure/property relationships, in situ, for polymers at air, liquid and solid interfaces. The experiments described in this dissertation have been performed to understand how polymer surface properties are linked to polymer bulk composition, substrate hydrophobicity, changes in the ambient environment (e.g., humidity and temperature), or the adsorption of macromolecules. The correlation of spectroscopic and mechanical data by SFG and AFM can become a powerful methodology to study and engineer materials with tailored surface properties. The overarching theme of this research is the interrogation of systems of increasing structural complexity, which allows us to extend conclusions made on simpler model systems. We begin by systematically describing the surface molecular composition and mechanical properties of polymers, copolymers, and blends having simple linear architectures. Subsequent chapters focus on networked hydrogel materials used as soft contact lenses and the adsorption of protein and surfactant at the polymer/liquid interface. The power of SFG is immediately demonstrated in experiments which identify the chemical parameters that influence the molecular composition and ordering of a polymer chain's side groups at the polymer/air and polymer/liquid interfaces. In general, side groups with increasingly greater hydrophobic character will be more surface active in air. Larger side groups impose steric restrictions, thus they will tend to be more randomly ordered than smaller hydrophobic groups. If exposed to a hydrophilic environment, such as water, the polymer chain will attempt to orient more of its hydrophilic groups to the surface in order to minimize the total surface energy. With an understanding of the structural and environmental parameters which govern polymer surface structure, SFG is then used to explore the effects of surface hydrophobicity and solvent polarity on the orientation and ordering of amphiphilic neutral polymers adsorbed at the solid/liquid interface. SFG spectra show that poly(propylene glycol) (PPG) and poly(ethylene glycol) (PEG) adsorb with their hydrophobic moieties preferentially oriented toward hydrophobic polystyrene surfaces. These same moieties, however, disorder when adsorbed onto a hydrophilic silica/water interface. Water is identified as a critical factor for mediating the orientation and ordering of hydrophobic moieties in polymers adsorbed at hydrophobic interfaces. The role of bulk water content and water vapor, as they influence hydrogel surface structure and mechanics, continues to be explored in the next series of experiments. A method was developed to probe the surface viscoelastic properties of hydroxylethyl methacrylate (HEMA) based contact lens materials by analyzing AFM force-distance curves. AFM analysis indicates that the interfacial region is dehydrated, relative to the bulk. Experiments performed on poly(HEMA+MA) (MA = methacrylic acid), a more hydrophilic copolymer with greater bulk water content, show even greater water depletion at the surface. SFG spectra, as well as surface energy arguments, suggest that the more hydrophilic polymer component (such as MA) is not favored at the air interface; this may explain anomalies in water retention at the hydrogel surface. Adsorption of lysozyme onto poly(HEMA+MA) was found to further reduce near-surface viscous behavior, suggesting lower surface water content. Lastly, protein adsorption is studied using a model polymer system of polystyrene covalently bound with a monolayer of bovine serum albumin. SFG results indicate that some amino acid residues in proteins adopt preferred orientations. SFG spectra also show that the phenyl rings of the bare polystyrene substrate in contact with air or liquid are ordered, with a dipole component directed along the surface normal, but slightly disorder after protein adsorption. Differences in AFM friction values suggest that protein interacts more strongly with the polystyrene substrate at the air/solid interface. The molecular orientation and ordering of surface phenyl groups are also shown to affect substrate hydrophobicity.

Background: At lipid interfaces, water plays a crucial role in carrying biological processes, so that there is a huge interest in unravelling the behaviour of water close to membranes. At charged bio-interfaces, water dipoles form an organized layer. Probing such an interfacial thin layer buried between macroscopic bulk environments is a real challenge. Vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectroscopy is intrinsically specific to interfaces, and has already proven to be an ideal tool to investigate model membranes and their surrounding water. Objectives: The goal of this work is to measure the vibrational SFG response of interfacial water around different model membranes — from easiest synthetic lipids to more complex natural lipids, — in order to use it as diagnostic signal able to distinguish the lipid bilayer interface by its charge properties. Materials and methods: Lipid bilayers made either of synthetic or natural lipids (Avanti Polar Lipids) were physisorbed on CaF2 prisms (Crystran), by using the method of the spontaneous fusion of lipid vesicles, to form so called solid-supported lipid bilayers (SSLBs). The model membranes were investigated by SFG spectroscopy at the solid/water interface. Results: The SFG response was measured between 3600 cm-1 and 2800 cm-1, where OH stretching vibrations of water molecules show-up. The SFG intensity of the OH peak maximum at 3125 cm-1 was recorded during the adsorption of lipid vesicles on the surface, and provided knowledge of the changes of the charge properties of the interface due to the adsorption of the model membranes. The SFG signal indicated that the organization of water was larger at negatively charged than at positively lipid interfaces, and reached the highest value with natural E. сoli сardiolipin layers. Moreover, when the full composition of natural lipids was unknown, the behaviour of the SFG response enabled establishing the charge characteristics of the corresponding lipid interfaces. Conclusion: The SFG response of water enabled estimating average charge behaviour of synthetic and natural lipid bilayers in pure water, thus paving the way to use the SFG signal of water as new diagnostic tool to identify lipid interfaces.

Electrical Double Layer Probed by Surface-Specific Vibrational Technique

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy was used to investigate the interfacial properties of several amino acids, peptides, and proteins adsorbed at the hydrophilic polystyrene solid-liquid and the hydrophobic silica solid-liquid interfaces. The influence of experimental geometry on the sensitivity and resolution of the SFG vibrational spectroscopy technique was investigated both theoretically and experimentally. SFG was implemented to investigate the adsorption and organization of eight individual amino acids at model hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces under physiological conditions. Biointerface studies were conducted using a combination of SFG and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) comparing the interfacial structure and concentration of two amino acids and their corresponding homopeptides at two model liquid-solid interfaces as a function of their concentration in aqueous solutions. The influence of temperature, concentration, equilibration time, and electrical bias on the extent of adsorption and interfacial structure of biomolecules were explored at the liquid-solid interface via QCM and SFG. QCM was utilized to quantify the biological activity of heparin functionalized surfaces. A novel optical parametric amplifier was developed and utilized in SFG experiments to investigate the secondary structure of an adsorbed model peptide at the solid-liquid interface.

Molecular studies on protein conformations at polymer/liquid interfaces using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy

Recent work with nanoparticle catalysts shows that size and shape control on the nanometer scale influences reaction rate and selectivity. Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy is a powerful tool for studying heterogeneous catalysis because it enables the observation of surface intermediates during catalytic reactions. To control the size and shape of catalytic nanoparticles, an organic ligand was used as a capping agent to stabilize nanoparticles during synthesis. However, the presence of an organic capping agent presents two major challenges in SFG and catalytic reaction studies: it blocks a significant fraction of active surface sites and produces a strong signal that prevents the detection of reaction intermediates with SFG. Two methods for cleaning Pt nanoparticles capped with poly(vinylpyrrolidone) (PVP) are examined in this study: solvent cleaning and UV cleaning. Solvent cleaning leaves more PVP intact and relies on disordering with hydrogen gas to reduce the SFG signal of PVP. In contrast, UV cleaning depends on nearly complete removal of PVP to reduce SFG signal. Both UV and solvent cleaning enable the detection of reaction intermediates by SFG. However, solvent cleaning also yields nanoparticles that are stable under reaction conditions, whereas UV cleaning results in aggregation during reaction. The results of this study indicate that solvent cleaning is more advantageous for studying the effects of nanoparticle size and shape on catalytic selectivity by SFG vibrational spectroscopy.

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy (AFM), and quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) have been used to study the molecular surface structure, surface topography and mechanical properties, and quantitative adsorbed amount of biological molecules at the solid-liquid interface. The molecular-level behavior of designed peptides adsorbed on hydrophobic polystyrene and hydrophilic silica substrates has been examined as a model of protein adsorption on polymeric biomaterial surfaces. Proteins are such large and complex molecules that it is difficult to identify the features in their structure that lead to adsorption and interaction with solid surfaces. Designed peptides which possess secondary structure provide simple model systems for understanding protein adsorption. Depending on the amino acid sequence of a peptide, different secondary structures ({alpha}-helix and {beta}-sheet) can be induced at apolar (air/liquid or air/solid) interfaces. Having a well-defined secondary structure allows experiments to be carried out under controlled conditions, where it is possible to investigate the affects of peptide amino acid sequence and chain length, concentration, buffering effects, etc. on adsorbed peptide structure. The experiments presented in this dissertation demonstrate that SFG vibrational spectroscopy can be used to directly probe the interaction of adsorbing biomolecules with a surface or interface. The use of well designed model systems aided in isolation of the SFG signal of the adsorbing species, and showed that surface functional groups of the substrate are sensitive to surface adsorbates. The complementary techniques of AFM and QCM allowed for deconvolution of the effects of surface topography and coverage from the observed SFG spectra. Initial studies of biologically relevant surfaces are also presented: SFG spectroscopy was used to study the surface composition of common soil bacteria for use in bioremediation of nuclear waste.

In situ molecular level studies on membrane related peptides and proteins in real time using sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy.

This paper reviews recent progress in the studies on polymer surfaces/interfaces using sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. SFG theory, technique, and some experimental details have been presented. The review is focused on the SFG studies on buried interfaces involving polymer materials, such as polymer–water interfaces and polymer–polymer interfaces. Molecular interactions between polymer surfaces and adhesion promoters as well as biological molecules such as proteins and peptides have also been elucidated using SFG. This review demonstrates that SFG is a powerful technique to characterize molecular level structural information of complicated polymer surfaces and interfaces in situ. Copyright © 2006 Society of Chemical Industry

The ammonia synthesis reaction has been studied using single crystal model catalysis combined with sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy. The adsorption of gases N<sub>2</sub>, H<sub>2</sub>, O<sub>2</sub> and NH<sub>3</sub> that play a role in ammonia synthesis have been studied on the Fe(111) crystal surface by sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy using an integrated Ultra-High Vacuum (UHV)/high-pressure system. SFG spectra are presented for the dissociation intermediates, NH<sub>2</sub> (~3325 cm<sup>-1</sup>) and NH (~3235 cm<sup>-1</sup>) under high pressure of ammonia or equilibrium concentrations of reactants and products on Fe(111) surfaces. Special attention was paid to understand how potassium promotion of the iron catalyst affects the intermediates of ammonia synthesis. An Fe(111) surface promoted with 0.2 monolayers of potassium red shifts the vibrational frequencies of the reactive surface intermediates, NH and NH<sub>2</sub>, providing evidence for weakened the nitrogen-hydrogen bonds relative to clean Fe(111). Spectral features of these surface intermediates persisted to higher temperatures for promoted iron surfaces than for clean Fe(111) surfaces implying that nitrogen-iron bonds are stronger for the promoted surface. The ratio of the NH to NH<sub>2</sub> signal changed for promoted surfaces in the presence of equilibrium concentrations of reactants and products. The order of adding oxygen and potassium to promoted surfaces does not alter the spectra indicating that ammonia induces surface reconstruction of the catalyst to produce the same surface morphology. When oxygen is co-adsorbed with nitrogen, hydrogen, ammonia or potassium on Fe(111), a relative phase shift of the spectra occurs as compared to the presence of adsorbates on clean iron surfaces. Water adsorption on iron was also probed using SFG vibrational spectroscopy. For both H<sub>2</sub>O and D<sub>2</sub>O, the only spectral feature was in the range of the free OH or free OD. From the absence of SFG spectra of ice-like structure we conclude that surface hydroxides are formed and no liquid water is present on the surface. Other than model catalysis, gas phase anion photoelectron spectroscopy of the Cl + H<sub>2</sub> van der Waals well, silicon clusters, germanium clusters, aluminum oxide clusters and indium phosphide clusters were studied. The spectra help to map out the neutral potential energy surfaces of the clusters. For aluminum oxide, the structures of the anions and neutrals were explored and for silicon, germanium and indium phosphide the electronic structure of larger clusters was mapped out.

Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy was used to study interactions between solid-supported lipid bilayers mimicking microbial and erythrocyte cellular membranes and synthetic antimicrobial arylamide oligomers named 2, 3, and 4, designed with the facial amphiphilicity common to naturally occurring antimicrobial peptides. The three compounds have the same backbone structure but varied side chains. The inherent interfacial sensitivity of SFG allowed for simultaneous monitoring of lipid ordering in the individual bilayer leaflets and orientation of 2, 3, and 4 upon interaction with the bilayer. Critical concentrations at which the inner leaflet is disrupted were determined for each oligomer. Spectral evidence of the oligomers' interaction with the bilayer below the critical concentrations was also found. Oligomers 2 and 3 tilted toward the bilayer surface normal, in agreement with previous experimental and simulation results. These oligomers selectively interact with microbial membrane models over erythrocyte membrane models, correlating well to previously published SFG studies on antimicrobial oligomer 1. It was shown that the oligomers interact with the lipid bilayers differently, indicating their different activity and selectivity. This research further shows that SFG is a particularly useful technique for the investigation of interaction mechanisms between cell membranes and membrane-active molecules. Additionally, SFG provides details of the specific interactions between these novel antimicrobials and lipid bilayers.

The adsorption of gases N2, H2, O2, and NH3 that play a role in ammonia synthesis have been studied on the Fe(111) crystal surface by Sum Frequency Generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy using an integrated ultrahigh vacuum/high-pressure system. SFG spectra are presented for the dissociation intermediates, NH2 ( approximately 3325 cm-1) and NH ( approximately 3235 cm-1) under high pressure of ammonia (200 Torr) on the clean Fe(111) surface. Addition of 0.5 Torr of oxygen to 200 Torr of ammonia does not significantly change the bonding of dissociation intermediates to the surface. However, it leads to a phase change of nearly 180 degrees between the resonant and nonresonant second-order nonlinear susceptibility of the surface, demonstrated as a reversal of the SFG spectral features. Heating the surface in the presence of 200 Torr of ammonia and 0.5 Torr of oxygen reduces the oxygen coverage, which can be seen from the SFG spectra as another relative phase change of 180 degrees . The reduction of the oxide is also supported by Auger electron spectroscopy. The result suggests that the phase change of the spectral features could serve as a sensitive indicator of the chemical environment of the adsorbates. Clean Fe(111) is found to have a large SFG nonresonant signal. The magnitude of the nonresonant signal was dependent on the adsorption species; O2 and N2 decrease, while H2 and NH3 increase the SFG nonresonant signal. The change in nonresonant signal is correlated to the change in work function for Fe(111) upon adsorption. Adsorption-induced changes in the SFG nonresonant signal was used as an indicator of surface conditions and to monitor surface reactions.

The analysis of experimental configurations is the foundation for quantitative analysis in sum frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (SFG-VS). The incident angles affect the signal intensity of some modes of vibration and the detection efficiency of the SFG signal. However, the issue of detection efficiency has not been included in previous experimental configuration analysis studies. According to the principle of the conservation of energy and momentum in coherent optics we simulated and analyzed the effect of incident angles, frequency of the incident light, and other factors on the output signal angle of difference frequency generation vibrational spectroscopy (DFG-VS) and SFG-VS. We intended to determine the reasonable and effective experimental configurations with more combinations of incident angles and less dispersion of the signal output angle. We found that SFG-VS with the co-propagation experimental configuration and DFG-VS with the counter-propagation experimental configuration favour the collection of the signal and quantitave analysis of the SFG-VS and DFG-VS.