Polymer surfaces as optical devices for photolabile linker compounds

Polymer surfaces become increasingly important with respect to low-cost applications in chemo- or biosensors and microfluidic systems. Some imply remarkable optical qualities like good transmittance in the near UV and low background fluorescence. Their effortless fabrication as thin-film substrates allows their use as optical waveguides for biochemical applications, or the cleaving of photolabile linker compounds1,2. Several methods are suitable to attach photoreactive linkers to polymer surfaces, among them plasma treatment with subsequent modification steps3,4. We present the immobilization of photoreactive molecules on different polymer surfaces and their characterization particularly with regard to surface homogeneity and binding capacity. Another important parameter is the r eproducibility of the surface chemistry which is investigated with different analytical methods in combination with fluorescence assays.