Anchoring gold nanoparticles onto a mica surface by oxygen plasma ashing for sequential nanocomponent assembly

Water-soluble gold nanoparticles were immobilized in both polar (water) and nonpolar (chloroform) liquids on hydrophilic mica surface by oxygen plasma ashing. It is then demonstrated that a DNA with a thiol at an extremity is attached to the immobilized nanoparticles due to the gold-thiol coupling and stretched in the flow direction of the following water rinse. This technique allows a sequential integration of nanoparticles and molecules for various solutions, since the nanoparticles remain on a solid surface rather than dissolve into the solution.