Surface plasmon resonance imaging of gold–small molecule interactions is influenced by refractive index and chemical structures

HYPOTHESIS:We hypothesize that surface plasmon resonance imaging (SPRi) of interactions between small organic compounds and gold is influenced by the refractive index and chemical structures of the compounds. EXPERIMENTS:For the first time we imaged the SPR signals upon interaction of a gold surface with seven compounds representing aromatic, cyclic, short chain, and long chain carbon structures using an array format. FINDINGS:The refractive index and chemical structures of the tested compounds influenced the sensitivity of detection of the SPR microarray imager. Thus, the array methodology presented herein is suitable for studying interactions of small molecules with a gold surface.