Fabrication of Mesoporous Silica Thin Film Platforms for Surface Reaction with Surface Plasmon Resonance

Mesoporous silica thin films were fabricated on gold substrates with a sol-gel method including a cationic surfactant. The interface of gold and silica thin films was fixed with a mercaptosilane. The surface roughness of the thin films and their grain sizes of silica were both increased with the elimination of the cationic surfactant and polyethylene glycol (PEG) modification on its surface. The surface reaction, adsorption of bovine serum albumin (BSA), was monitored with surface plasmon resonance (SPR). Although the adsorption amount of BSA at 1 mg/mL were 7.9 ng/cm2 on the mesoporous silica, the PEG modification can completely desorb BSA. The mesoporous silica thin films on gold substrates fabricated will be a good platform for analyzing surface reaction.