organosilane modi fi cation of a simultaneously protein resistant and bioconjugable silica surface †

Chemical modication of surfaces, which enables unprecedented manipulation of the characteristics of materials, can be attained by a virtually indenite number of different compounds and methods. Regarding the accommodation of molecules over surfaces, self-assembly strategies depending on spontaneous interactions of the molecules with the surface for the formation of monoor multilayers are among the most frequently utilized. Self-assembly generally occurs via functional head groups having high affinity towards the substrate, anchoring the molecule covalently or non-covalently to the surface. Among various different head groups, silanes are particularly important and widely used, while the knowledge regarding their assembly is far more empirical, besides being practical. Silanes are assumed to form monolayers over the surfaces; yet this is a controversial issue since their assembly depends highly on the environmental conditions, obstructing the formation of lms with well-dened characteristics. Also polymerization frequently occurs during their assembly. The characteristics of a silane based coating depend on many factors such as density, chain length and functional group. Having a coating with simultaneously more than one function thus represents a challenge for silane basedmolecules,