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Fabrication and characterization of graphene nanoribbons epitaxially grown on SiC(0001)
Einzelschichten von Graphen-Nanobänders (GNRs) wurden auf SiC(0001)-Substraten mit zwei unterschiedlichen Fehlschnitten bei Temperaturen von 1410 bis 1460 °C synthetisiert. Das GNR-Wachstum lässt sich bei niedriger Stufenkantenhöhe am besten durch eine exponentielle Wachstumsrate, welche mit der Energiebarriere für die Ausdiffusion von Si korreliert ist. Anderseits wird bei Substraten mit höheren Stufenkanten eine nicht-exponentielle Rate beobachtet, was mit der Bildung von mehrlagigen Graphen an den Stufenkanten in Verbindung gebracht wird. Die Sauerstoffinterkalation von epitaktischen GNRs mittels Ausglühen an Luft von Bändern wird als nächstes untersucht, welche auf unterschiedlichen SiC-Substraten gewachsen wurden. Neben der Umwandlung von monolagigem zu zweilagigem Graphen in der Nähe der Stufenkanten von SiC, führt die Sauerstoffinterkalation zusätzlich zu der Bildung einer Oxidschicht auf den Terrassen des Substrats, was die zweilagigen GNRs elektrisch isoliert voneinander zurücklässt. Die elektrische Charakterisierung der zweilagigen GNRs zeigten dass die Bänder durch die Behandlung mit Sauerstoff elektrisch voneinander entkoppelt sind. Eine robuste Lochkonzentration von etwa 1x10¹³ cm-² und Mobilitäten von bis zu 700 cm²/(Vs) wurden für die GNRs mit einer typischen Breite von 100 nm bei Raumtemperatur gemessen. Wohl definierte Mesastrukturen gebildet mittels Elektronenstrahllithographie auf SiC-Substraten, wurde zuletzt untersucht. Die Charakterisierung des Ladungsträgertransports von GNRs die auf den Seitenwänden der strukturierten Terrassen gewachsen wurden, zeigt eine Mobilität im Bereich von 1000 bis 2000 cm²/(Vs), welche für verschiedene Strukturen auf der gesamten Probe homogen ist, was die Reproduzierbarkeit dieses Herstellungsverfahrens hervorhebt, sowie dessen Potential für die Implementierung in zukünftigen Technologien, welche auf epitaktischgewachsenene GNRs basieren.
New perspectives for viability studies with high-content analysis Raman spectroscopy (HCA-RS)
Raman spectroscopy has been widely used in clinical and molecular biological studies, providing high chemical specificity without the necessity of labels and with little-to-no sample preparation. However, currently performed Raman-based studies of eukaryotic cells are still very laborious and time-consuming, resulting in a low number of sampled cells and questionable statistical validations. Furthermore, the approach requires a trained specialist to perform and analyze the experiments, rendering the method less attractive for most laboratories. In this work, we present a new high-content analysis Raman spectroscopy (HCA-RS) platform that overcomes the current challenges of conventional Raman spectroscopy implementations. HCA-RS allows sampling of a large number of cells under different physiological conditions without any user interaction. The performance of the approach is successfully demonstrated by the development of a Raman-based cell viability assay, i.e., the effect of doxorubicin concentration on monocytic THP-1 cells. A statistical model, principal component analysis combined with support vector machine (PCA-SVM), was found to successfully predict the percentage of viable cells in a mixed population and is in good agreement to results obtained by a standard cell viability assay. This study demonstrates the potential of Raman spectroscopy as a standard high-throughput tool for clinical and biological applications.
Raman imaging with a fiber-coupled multichannel spectrograph
Until now, spatially resolved Raman Spectroscopy has required to scan a sample under investigation in a time-consuming step-by-step procedure. Here, we present a technique that allows the capture of an entire Raman image with only one single exposure. The Raman scattering arising from the sample was collected with a fiber-coupled high-performance astronomy spectrograph. The probe head consisting of an array of 20 × 20 multimode fibers was linked to the camera port of a microscope. To demonstrate the high potential of this new concept, Raman images of reference samples were recorded. Entire chemical maps were received without the need for a scanning procedure.
Detection of Protein Glycosylation Using Tip-Enhanced Raman Scattering
The correct glycosylation of biopharmaceutical glycoproteins and their formulations is essential for them to have the desired therapeutic effect on the patient. It has recently been shown that Raman spectroscopy can be used to quantify the proportion of glycosylated protein from mixtures of native and glycosylated forms of bovine pancreatic ribonuclease (RNase). Here we show the first steps toward not only the detection of glycosylation status but the characterization of glycans themselves from just a few protein molecules at a time using tip-enhanced Raman scattering (TERS). While this technique generates complex data that are very dependent on the protein orientation, with the careful development of combined data preprocessing, univariate and multivariate analysis techniques, we have shown that we can distinguish between the native and glycosylated forms of RNase. Many glycoproteins contain populations of subtly different glycoforms; therefore, with stricter orientation control, we believe this has the potential to lead to further glycan characterization using TERS, which would have use in biopharmaceutical synthesis and formulation research.
Evaluation of shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy and comparison to computational background correction methods applied to biochemical Raman spectra
Raman spectroscopy provides label-free biochemical information from tissue samples without complicated sample preparation. The clinical capability of Raman spectroscopy has been demonstrated in a wide range of in vitro and in vivo applications. However, a challenge for in vivo applications is the simultaneous excitation of auto-fluorescence in the majority of tissues of interest, such as liver, bladder, brain, and others. Raman bands are then superimposed on a fluorescence background, which can be several orders of magnitude larger than the Raman signal. To eliminate the disturbing fluorescence background, several approaches are available. Among instrumentational methods shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) has been widely applied and studied. Similarly, computational techniques, for instance extended multiplicative scatter correction (EMSC), have also been employed to remove undesired background contributions. Here, we present a theoretical and experimental evaluation and comparison of fluorescence background removal approaches for Raman spectra based on SERDS and EMSC.
Probing Oxide Reduction and Phase Transformations at the Au-TiO2 Interface by Vibrational Spectroscopy
By a combination of FT-NIR Raman spectroscopy, infrared spectroscopy of CO adsorption under ultrahigh vacuum conditions (UHV-IR) and Raman spectroscopy in the line scanning mode the formation of a reduced titania phase in a commercial Au/TiO2 catalyst and in freshly prepared Au/anatase catalysts was detected. The reduced phase, formed at the Au-TiO2 interface, can serve as nucleation point for the formation of stoichiometric rutile. TinO2n−1 Magnéli phases, structurally resembling the rutile phase, might be involved in this process. The formation of the reduced phase and the rutilization process is clearly linked to the presence of gold nanoparticles and it does not proceed under similar conditions with the pure titania sample. Phase transformations might be both thermally or light induced, however, the colloidal deposition synthesis of the Au/TiO2 catalysts is clearly ruled out as cause for the formation of the reduced phase.
The boson peak and the first sharp diffraction peak in (As2S3)x(GeS2)1–x glasses
The parameters of the boson peak (BP) and the first sharp diffraction peak (FSDP) in (As2S3)x(GeS2)1x glasses measured using high-resolution Raman spectroscopy and high-energy synchrotron X-ray diffraction measurements are examined as a function of x. It has been found that there is no correlation between the positions of BP and FSDP. The BP position shows a nonlinear composition behavior with a maximum at about x = 0.4, whereas the FSDP position changes virtually linearly with x. The intensities of both BP and FSDP show nonlinear composition dependences with the slope changes at x = 0.4, although there is no direct proportionality. Analysis of the partial structure factors for the glasses with x = 0.2, 0.4 and 0.6 obtained in another study has shown that the cation-cation atomic pairs of Ge–Ge, Ge–As and As–As make the largest contribution to FSDP, where the Ge–Ge and Ge–As pairs are dominant.
Wide Field Spectral Imaging with Shifted Excitation Raman Difference Spectroscopy Using the Nod and Shuffle Technique
Wide field Raman imaging using the integral field spectroscopy approach was used as a fast, one shot imaging method for the simultaneous collection of all spectra composing a Raman image. For the suppression of autofluorescence and background signals such as room light, shifted excitation Raman difference spectroscopy (SERDS) was applied to remove background artifacts in Raman spectra. To reduce acquisition times in wide field SERDS imaging, we adapted the nod and shuffle technique from astrophysics and implemented it into a wide field SERDS imaging setup. In our adapted version, the nod corresponds to the change in excitation wavelength, whereas the shuffle corresponds to the shifting of charges up and down on a Charge-Coupled Device (CCD) chip synchronous to the change in excitation wavelength. We coupled this improved wide field SERDS imaging setup to diode lasers with 784.4/785.5 and 457.7/458.9 nm excitation and applied it to samples such as paracetamol and aspirin tablets, polystyrene and polymethyl methacrylate beads, as well as pork meat using multiple accumulations with acquisition times in the range of 50 to 200 ms. The results tackle two main challenges of SERDS imaging: gradual photobleaching changes the autofluorescence background, and multiple readouts of CCD detector prolong the acquisition time.
Application of High-Throughput Screening Raman Spectroscopy (HTS-RS) for Label-Free Identification and Molecular Characterization of Pollen
Pollen studies play a critical role in various fields of science. In the last couple of decades, replacement of manual identification of pollen by image-based methods using pollen morphological features was a great leap forward, but challenges for pollen with similar morphology remain, and additional approaches are required. Spectroscopy approaches for identification of pollen, such as Raman spectroscopy has potential benefits over traditional methods, due to the investigation of the intrinsic molecular composition of a sample. However, current Raman-based characterization of pollen is complex and time-consuming, resulting in low throughput and limiting the statistical significance of the acquired data. Previously demonstrated high-throughput screening Raman spectroscopy (HTS-RS) eliminates the complexity as well as human interaction by incorporation full automation of the data acquisition process. Here, we present a customization of HTS-RS for pollen identification, enabling sampling of a large number of pollen in comparison to other state-of-the-art Raman pollen investigations. We show that using Raman spectra we are able to provide a preliminary estimation of pollen types based on growth habits using hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) as well as good taxonomy of 37 different Pollen using principal component analysis-support vector machine (PCA-SVM) with good accuracy even for the pollen specimens sharing similar morphological features. Our results suggest that HTS-RS platform meets the demands for automated pollen detection making it an alternative method for research concerning pollen.
Secondary Structure and Glycosylation of Mucus Glycoproteins by Raman Spectroscopies
The major structural components of protective mucus hydrogels on mucosal surfaces are the secreted polymeric gel-forming mucins. The very high molecular weight and extensive O-glycosylation of gel-forming mucins, which are key to their viscoelastic properties, create problems when studying mucins using conventional biochemical/structural techniques. Thus, key structural information, such as the secondary structure of the various mucin subdomains, and glycosylation patterns along individual molecules, remains to be elucidated. Here, we utilized Raman spectroscopy, Raman optical activity (ROA), circular dichroism (CD), and tip-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (TERS) to study the structure of the secreted polymeric gel-forming mucin MUC5B. ROA indicated that the protein backbone of MUC5B is dominated by unordered conformation, which was found to originate from the heavily glycosylated central mucin domain by isolation of MUC5B O-glycan-rich regions. In sharp contrast, recombinant proteins of the N-terminal region of MUC5B (D1-D2-D′-D3 domains, NT5B), C-terminal region of MUC5B (D4-B-C-CK domains, CT5B) and the Cys-domain (within the central mucin domain of MUC5B) were found to be dominated by the β-sheet. Using these findings, we employed TERS, which combines the chemical specificity of Raman spectroscopy with the spatial resolution of atomic force microscopy to study the secondary structure along 90 nm of an individual MUC5B molecule. Interestingly, the molecule was found to contain a large amount of α-helix/unordered structures and many signatures of glycosylation, pointing to a highly O-glycosylated region on the mucin.