Physcial Sciences Division
Staff Awards & Honors

February 2008

Soft-Landing Research Glides onto Cover of Top Physics Journal

Julia Laskin, Omar Hadjar, and Peng Wang (left to right).

Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's Dr. Julia Laskin, Dr. Omar Hadjar, and Dr. Peng Wang show that the complex science of soft deposition of small proteins on a surface is both beautiful and informative. The images they provided for an invited review article on the current understanding of the soft-landing phenomena grace the cover of the February 28, 2008, issue of Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics, rated #7 by ISI in impact in atomic, chemical, and molecular physics.

The soft-landing experiments use mass spectrometry as a separation technique for preparing novel materials and exploring reactivity at interfaces. Softly landing molecules on a surface provides a convenient and flexible platform for tailoring properties of substrates and opens new opportunities for preparing extremely pure, uniform layers of molecules on surfaces for applications in biology, biomaterials, and catalysis. Creating films of molecules strongly bound to surfaces could lead to better sensors, more efficient industrial processes, and new biomaterials.

Studies of depositing biomolecules on substrates will also help to obtain a molecular-level understanding of the interactions of peptides and proteins with hydrophobic (water fearing) and hydrophilic (water loving) surfaces. This research is relevant to transporting biomolecules through membranes in organisms and determining binding energies between biomolecules and model surfaces in the absence of solvents.

Citation: Laskin J, P Wang, and O Hadjar.  2008.  "Soft-Landing of Peptide Ions Onto Self-Assembled Monolayer Surfaces: An Overview."  Physical Chemistry Chemical Physics 10(8):1069-1216.