Covalent attachment of functional protein to polymer surfaces: a novel one-step dry process.

The attachment of bioactive protein to surfaces underpins the development of biosensors and diagnostic microarrays. We present a surface treatment using plasma immersion ion implantation (PIII) to create stable covalent binding sites for the attachment of functional soya-bean peroxidase (SBP). Fourier transform infrared spectra of the surfaces show that protein is retained on the surface after boiling in sodium dodecyl sulphate and sodium hydroxide, which is indicative of covalent attachment. The activity of SBP on the treated surfaces remains high in comparison with SBP attached to control surfaces over the course of 11 days. Surface plasmon resonance was used to show that the surface coverage of the attached protein is close to a monolayer. We describe the potential of the PIII treatment method to be used as a one-step dry process to create surfaces for large-scale protein micro- or nanopatterning.