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Now showing 1 - 5 of 5
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    A manual and an automatic TERS based virus discrimination
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2015) Olschewski, Konstanze; Kämmer, Evelyn; Stöckel, Stephan; Bocklitz, Thomas; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Zell, Roland; Cialla-May, Dana; Weber, Karina; Deckert, Volker; Popp, Jürgen
    Rapid techniques for virus identification are more relevant today than ever. Conventional virus detection and identification strategies generally rest upon various microbiological methods and genomic approaches, which are not suited for the analysis of single virus particles. In contrast, the highly sensitive spectroscopic technique tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) allows the characterisation of biological nano-structures like virions on a single-particle level. In this study, the feasibility of TERS in combination with chemometrics to discriminate two pathogenic viruses, Varicella-zoster virus (VZV) and Porcine teschovirus (PTV), was investigated. In a first step, chemometric methods transformed the spectral data in such a way that a rapid visual discrimination of the two examined viruses was enabled. In a further step, these methods were utilised to perform an automatic quality rating of the measured spectra. Spectra that passed this test were eventually used to calculate a classification model, through which a successful discrimination of the two viral species based on TERS spectra of single virus particles was also realised with a classification accuracy of 91%.
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    Spatial resolution of tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy – DFT assessment of the chemical effect
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2016) Latorre, Federico; Kupfer, Stephan; Bocklitz, Thomas; Kinzel, Daniel; Trautmann, Steffen; Gräfe, Stefanie; Deckert, Volker
    Experimental evidence of extremely high spatial resolution of tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) has been recently demonstrated. Here, we present a full quantum chemical description (at the density functional level of theory) of the non-resonant chemical effects on the Raman spectrum of an adenine molecule mapped by a tip, modeled as a single silver atom or a small silver cluster. We show pronounced changes in the Raman pattern and its intensities depending on the conformation of the nanoparticle–substrate system, concluding that the spatial resolution of the chemical contribution of TERS can be in the sub-nm range.
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    Spatially resolved spectroscopic differentiation of hydrophilic and hydrophobic domains on individual insulin amyloid fibrils
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2016) Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Kurouski, Dmitry; Hedegaard, Martin A. B.; Singh, Pushkar; Lednev, Igor K.; Deckert, Volker
    The formation of insoluble β-sheet-rich protein structures known as amyloid fibrils is associated with numerous neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. A detailed understanding of the molecular structure of the fibril surface is of interest as the first contact with the physiological environment in vivo and plays a decisive role in biological activity and associated toxicity. Recent studies reveal that the inherent sensitivity and specificity of tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) renders this technique a compelling method for fibril surface analysis at the single-particle level. Here, the reproducibility of TERS is demonstrated, indicating its relevance for detecting molecular variations. Consequently, individual fibrils are systematically investigated at nanometer spatial resolution. Spectral parameters were obtained by band-fitting, particularly focusing on the identification of the secondary structure via the amide III band and the differentiation of hydrophobic and hydrophilic domains on the surface. In addition multivariate data analysis, specifically the N-FINDR procedure, was employed to generate structure-specific maps. The ability of TERS to localize specific structural domains on fibril surfaces shows promise to the development of new fibril dissection strategies and can be generally applied to any (bio)chemical surface when structural variations at the nanometer level are of interest.
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    High resolution spectroscopy reveals fibrillation inhibition pathways of insulin
    ([London] : Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature, 2016) Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Deckert, Volker
    Fibril formation implies the conversion of a protein’s native secondary structure and is associated with several neurodegenerative diseases. A better understanding of fibrillation inhibition and fibril dissection requires nanoscale molecular characterization of amyloid structures involved. Tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS) has already been used to chemically analyze amyloid fibrils on a sub-protein unit basis. Here, TERS in combination with atomic force microscopy (AFM), and conventional Raman spectroscopy characterizes insulin assemblies generated during inhibition and dissection experiments in the presence of benzonitrile, dimethylsulfoxide, quercetin, and β-carotene. The AFM topography indicates formation of filamentous or bead-like insulin self-assemblies. Information on the secondary structure of bulk samples and of single aggregates is obtained from standard Raman and TERS measurements. In particular the high spatial resolution of TERS reveals the surface conformations associated with the specific agents. The insulin aggregates formed under different inhibition and dissection conditions can show a similar morphology but differ in their β-sheet structure content. This suggests different aggregation pathways where the prevention of the β-sheet stacking of the peptide chains plays a major role. The presented approach is not limited to amyloid-related reasearch but can be readily applied to systems requiring extremely surface-sensitive characterization without the need of labels.
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    Surface- and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy reveals spin-waves in iron oxide nanoparticles
    (Cambridge : RSC Publ., 2015) Rodriguez, Raul D.; Sheremet, Evgeniya; Deckert-Gaudig, Tanja; Chaneac, Corinne; Hietschold, Michael; Deckert, Volker; Zahn, Dietrich R. T.
    Nanomaterials have the remarkable characteristic of displaying physical properties different from their bulk counterparts. An additional degree of complexity and functionality arises when oxide nanoparticles interact with metallic nanostructures. In this context the Raman spectra due to plasmonic enhancement of iron oxide nanocrystals are here reported showing the activation of spin-waves. Iron oxide nanoparticles on gold and silver tips are found to display a band around 1584 cm−1 attributed to a spin-wave magnon mode. This magnon mode is not observed for nanoparticles deposited on silicon (111) or on glass substrates. Metal–nanoparticle interaction and the strongly localized electromagnetic field contribute to the appearance of this mode. The localized excitation that generates this mode is confirmed by tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS). The appearance of the spin-waves only when the TERS tip is in close proximity to a nanocrystal edge suggests that the coupling of a localized plasmon with spin-waves arises due to broken symmetry at the nanoparticle border and the additional electric field confinement. Beyond phonon confinement effects previously reported in similar systems, this work offers significant insights on the plasmon-assisted generation and detection of spin-waves optically induced.