Ohio University’s Chemistry and Biochemistry Colloquium Series presents Dr. Zhan Chen on “Applications of Sum Frequency Generation Vibrational Spectroscopy to Study Molecular Structures of Buried Interfaces of Polymer Materials and Biological Molecules” on Monday, Oct. 16, at 4:10 p.m. in Clippinger Laboratories 194.
Dr. Zhan Chen
Chen is Professor of Chemistry at the University of Michigan.
Abstract: Sum frequency generation (SFG) vibrational spectroscopy has been developed into a powerful analytical tool to elucidate molecular structures of buried interfaces such as solid/liquid and solid/solid interfaces in situ in real time. In this talk, I will present applications of SFG to study polymer and biological interfaces. Our SFG studies successfully revealed molecular surface and buried interfacial structures of low dielectric constant materials with different porosities before and after plasma treatment and chemical repairing. The studies on various polymer adhesives led to the in-depth understanding of adhesion mechanisms of various polymer adhesives for microelectronics. SFG has been applied to examine molecular level interactions between model cell membranes and peptides/proteins to understand their membrane conformation and orientation. Structure-function relationships of surface immobilized antimicrobial peptides and enzymes have been elucidated using SFG, molecular dynamics simulations, and activity measurements. With the help of SFG characterization, systematic methodology was developed to retain native structure of surface immobilized peptides and proteins in air without bulk water.
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