XPS and ToF-SIMS Investigation of α -Helical and β -Strand Peptide Adsorption onto SAMs

14-mer α -helix and a 15-mer β -strand oligopeptides composed of leucine (L) and lysine (K) were used to investigate peptide adsorption and orientation onto well-defined methyl and carboxylic acid terminated self-assembled monolayer (SAM) surfaces with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS). XPS showed both peptides reached monolayer thickness on both SAMs, but significantly higher solution concentrations were required to reach this coverage on the methyl SAMs. This shows that the peptides adsorb more strongly onto the carboxyl-terminated SAMs. The excess oxygen detected by XPS and the H 3 O + signal detected by ToF-SIMS for the SAMs with adsorbed peptides indicated that water molecules are associated with the adsorbed peptides, even under ultra-high vacuum conditions. Changes in the amount of L and K fragments detected by ToF-SIMS indicate the β -strand oriented differently on the two SAMs. The L side-chains were preferentially associated with the methyl-terminated SAM and the K side-chains were preferentially associated with the carboxyl SAM. In contrast, little change in the ToF-SIMS K/L ratio was observed for the α -helix peptide absorbed on the two SAMs, indicating ToF-SIMS was not as sensitive to orientation of the α -helix peptide.