Multi-user equipment approved in grant 16/21070-5: infrared spectrometer with microscope, model vertex, Bruker

Abstract

Several research activities in the Laboratório de Espectroscopia Molecular, Instituto de Química, Universidade de São Paulo, LEM/IQ-USP, are related to infrared and Raman spectroscopy. Coupling of optical microscopes to infrared and Raman spectrometers provides to vibrational spectroscopy the spatial resolution of the order of micrometer or below micrometer, then combining molecular structure characterization and imaging. This work includes several research projects whose development need spectral and spatial resolutions. The work will be undertaken by a group of seven professors, and their undergraduate students, PhD students, and pos-docs, of Chemistry institutes at São Paulo and Campinas universities (USP and UNICAMP). In this work, the researches in vibrational microspectroscopy include studies on solid and fluid inclusions of the order of micrometers in natural crystals of geological interest, phase transitions and glass formation of ionic liquids under wide range of pressure and temperature, hybrid materials for absorption of gases, inorganic matrixes for modified releasing of drugs and their interface with live tissues, and degradation processes of cultural goods in the forensic area and identification of falsifications and frauds. Projects in surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) will be undertaken aiming the understanding of fundamental issues related to the mechanism of signal intensification as well as several applications. The SERS effect relies on the morphology of colloidal nanoparticles or metallic surfaces, so that these will be studied aiming the best performance of such surfaces for new technologies. The high performance SERS systems to be studied in this project include anisotropic nanoparticles, polymers and metallic nanoparticles, and bimetallic nanoparticles. These systems will be applied for analysis of species of environmental and biological interests in the range of single molecule detection, catalytic processes, for instance, carbon dioxide hydrogenation to generate fuels, and in forensic applications. (AU)