An improved surface passivation method for single-molecule studies

Authors:

Hua, B., Han, K. Y., Zhou, R., Kim, H., Shi, X., Abeysirigunawardena, S. C., ... & Ha, T.

Keywords:

Biophysical methods, Chemical tools, Fluorescence imaging, Single-molecule biophysics

Abstract:

We report a surface passivation method based on dichlorodimethylsilane (DDS)–Tween-20 for in vitro single-molecule studies, which, under the conditions tested here, more efficiently prevented nonspecific binding of biomolecules than the standard poly(ethylene glycol) surface. The DDS–Tween-20 surface was simple and inexpensive to prepare and did not perturb the behavior and activities of tethered biomolecules. It can also be used for single-molecule imaging in the presence of high concentrations of labeled species in solution.

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