Ethylene glycol

Hen egg-white lysozyme (14,400 Da), HWL-N, Thioflavine T, ThT, chloroform, and methanol were purchased from Sigma (Milano, Italy). Ethylene Glycol (EG, ≥99%) was obtained from Scharlab (Milano, Italy). Sodium sulfide nonahydrate, PVP (Mw 55000), silver nitrate, GO solution (4 mg/mL) were obtained by Sigma Aldrich (Milano, Italy). All aqueous solutions were prepared using ultrapure Milli-Q water obtained from a Milli-Q set-up (Millipore pH = 5.6 at 20 °C). Suprasil quartz slides were purchased from Hellma (Muellheim, Germany), 5-MHz AT-cut gold-coated QCM sensors were provided by Biolin (Espoo, Finland).

Iron(III) chloride hexahydrate 98%, iron(II) chloride tetrahydrate 99%, tetraethylortosilicate (TEOS), 98%,hexadecyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTAB), 2-hydroxybenzoic acid, triphenyl phosphite (TPP), tetrabutylammonium bromide (TBAB), 2-aminothiophenol, sodium hydroxide (NaOH), pyridine, 3-isocyanatopropyltriethoxysilane (ICTES), 3-iodopropyltrimethoxysilane (IPTMS), magnesium sulfate, and the nitrate salts of metal cations for fluorescence measurements, that is, Na⁺, K⁺, Ag⁺, Ca²⁺, Mg²⁺, Fe²⁺, Co²⁺, Ni²⁺, Cu²⁺, Zn²⁺, Cd²⁺, Ba²⁺, Hg²⁺, Pb²⁺, and Al³⁺, were purchased from Sigma Aldrich (Tres Cantos, Spain) and were used as received. Iron(III) nitrate nonahydrate, extra pure sodium acetate anhydrous, sodium hydrogen carbonate, ascorbic acid, and ethylene glycol were purchased from Scharlau (Móstoles, Spain) and were used as received, without further purification. Triethylamine (Et₃N) redistilled 99% was purchased from Fluka (Tres Cantos, Spain) and was used as supplied. Organic solvents such as THF and acetone were purchased from Carlo Erba (Sabadell, Spain) and were distilled and dried over appropriate drying agents. Ethanol was purchased from VWR (Barcelona, Spain) and Milli-Q (Merck-Millipore, Barlington, MA, USA) quality water was used in the experiments.