Fabrication of Peptide Self-assembled Monolayer on Mica Surface and its Application in Atomic Force Microscopy Nanolithography

Self-assembled monolayer (SAM) as a unique type of nanomaterials has played important roles in modern nanotechnology. In this study, we described a novel method to fabricate SAM with a surfactant-like peptide A6K, which has been known to self-assemble into micellar nanofibers in aqueous solution. Firstly a simple filtration method was used to remove self-assembling nanofibers and retain peptide monomers in solution. Pyrene-fluorescence, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and atomic force microscopy (AFM) were used to confirm that nanofibers were effectively removed and filtered solution contained only peptide monomers. Then by incubating the filtered peptide solution on mica surface, the peptide monomers could self-assemble into a flat and continuous peptide SAM, which was further proved to be a suitable substrate for creating nanopatterns by AFM nanolithography.