Solvent Effect on Morphology of Polystyrene Coating and their Role to Improvement for Biomolecule Immobilization in Application of QCM Based Biosensor

Abstract

This research is focused on the synthesis of a polystiren layer for biosensors based on a Quartz Crystal Microbalance sensor (QCM) to immobilize the biomolecule. The polystyrene thin film was deposited by means of spin coating method with various solvents, such as chloroform, toluene, xylene, and tetrahydrofuran (THF), containing a 3% polystyrene solution by mass. The morphologies of the polystyrene layers were observed via SEM/EDx. The polystyrene surface coated using chloroform as the solvent has a rougher morphology and the largest diameter pores compared with the other solvents. The result show the polystyrene surface coating produced with chloroform caused a higher frequency change, which resulted in the binding of a wider range of biomolecules.