Beilstein Arch. 2025, 202526. https://doi.org/10.3762/bxiv.2025.26.v1
Published 23 Apr 2025
We investigated the effect of air humidity on two gold nanoparticle systems, one functionalized by an oligo ethylene glycol ligand, and one functionalized by a mixture of the same with a dimannoside ligand. The dimannoside on a gold particle was chosen to mimic the shape and surface chemistry of viral “spike” proteins. We characterized the particles by electron microscopy, dynamic light scattering, and infrared spectroscopy. We probed particles adsorbed on hydrophilic and hydrophobic surfaces with atomic force microscopy (AFM) and vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy, both operated under variable air humidity. For AFM, we additionally tested hydrophilic and hydrophobic tips. While VSFG indicated preferential hydration of the dimannoside and proved conformational changes in the organic ligands, AFM provided sub-nm changes in particle topography due to water adsorption. In general, the dimannoside nanoparticles condense ultrathin water layers upon humidity increase. In contrast, we found that the water adsorption on the oligo ethylene glycol particles depends little on humidity. Our insights into structural changes on glyconanoparticles and the hydration properties of glycosylated particles are of application value for biosensors and help model the transmission of airborne viruses, such as influenza.
Keywords: Water; wetting; AFM; sum frequency generation spectroscopy; nanoparticles; viruses; hydrophobicity; hydrophilicity; humidity
| Format: DOC | Size: 868.0 KB | Download |
When a peer-reviewed version of this preprint is available, this information will be updated in the information box above. If no peer-reviewed version is available, please cite this preprint using the following information:
Iriarte Alonso, M. A.; Melillo, J. H.; Cerveny, S.; Tong, Y.; Bittner, A. M. Beilstein Arch. 2025, 202526. doi:10.3762/bxiv.2025.26.v1
Citation data can be downloaded as file using the "Download" button or used for copy/paste from the text window below.
Citation data in RIS format can be imported by all major citation management software, including EndNote, ProCite, RefWorks, and
Zotero.
© 2025 Iriarte Alonso et al.; licensee Beilstein-Institut.
This is an open access work licensed under the terms of the Beilstein-Institut Open Access License Agreement (https://www.beilstein-archives.org/xiv/terms), which is identical to the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0). The reuse of material under this license requires that the author(s), source and license are credited. Third-party material in this work could be subject to other licenses (typically indicated in the credit line), and in this case, users are required to obtain permission from the license holder to reuse the material.
