Eur. Phys. J. D (2014) 68: 333
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjd/e2014-40845-8

Regular Article

X-ray radiation of poly-L-arginine hydrochloride and multilayered DNA-coatings^*

¹ The Open University, Department of Physical Sciences, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
² The Open University, Engineering and Innovation, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK

^a e-mail: a.stypczynska@open.ac.uk

Received: 31 December 2013
Received in final form: 1 April 2014
Published online: 3 November 2014

Abstract

The aim of this work was to determine the chemical changes induced in thin films of the dry polypeptide poly-L-arginine hydrochloride and its mixture with calf thymus deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) during 5 h of soft X-ray exposure. The physical and chemical effects of the soft X-ray irradiation were studied using X-ray Photoelectron Spectroscopy (XPS). Analysis of O1s, N1s and C1s features in XPS spectra reveals the existence of several routes of radiation-induced decomposition and shows quantitative and qualitative changes.