Surface Plasmon Assisted Spectroscopies and Their Application in Trace Element Analysis, the Study of Biomolecular Interactions, and Chemical Sensing

Abstract

The main objective of this dissertation is to apply the fundamental principles of surface plasmon assisted spectroscopies such as surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy in the trace analysis of selenite and tellurite concentration in an analyte solution, the study of the protein-protein interactions, and chemical sensing.

Chapter 1 presents the detailed literature review on two types of the surface plasmon assisted spectroscopies: surface plasmon resonance spectroscopy (SPR) and surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). The principles of SPR and SERS based on the optical properties of the metallic thin film, their current applications in biochemical/chemical sensing, and the anticipated results are discussed in detail.

Chapter 2 provides a detailed discussion on the quantitative analysis of the selenite and tellurite concentration in an analyte solution. This study employs the combined electrochemistry and SPR technique (EC-SPR) to determine the concentration of an unknown solution containing selenite and tellurite ions. The motivation of determining selenium content in an aqueous solution, brief background of EC-SPR, the experiment setup, and the results of the research are presented.

Chapter 3 presents the application of surface Plasmon resonance spectroscopy in studying the protein-protein interaction as a surface based bioanalytical method. The two component protein system of alkanesulfonate monooxygenase was chosen as a model system for the study. The flavin reductase (SsuE) and flavin monooxygenase (SsuD) interact strongly to carry out enzymatic reactions. Their interaction has been studied using the solution based method. Herein, the surface based method such as SPR was used in this study and the current research results were compared to the results obtained from the solution based method. The discrepancy between two results was discussed.

Chapter 4 presents the application of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy in studying the binary components of self-assembled monolayers and in developing a state-of-art filter based chemical sensor. The goal of this research project is to develop an optical based chemical sensor for monitoring the in-flight air quality. The development and the validation of the SERS based sensor are discussed.

Chapter 5 summarizes the finding of the research. The future work of the projects is stated.