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RESEARCH PRODUCT

Biomolecules and nanostructured systems : characterization by Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)

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This work addressed the study of several kinds of nanostructured systems, biomolecules and inorganic thin films, mainly by Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS). The aim was to investigate the structure and the chemical bonds. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) was also used to complete the structural characterization of the different samples.Firstly, the study was conducted on molecules of biological interest. The aim was to study the interaction between silver nanoparticles and proteins. With this aim, silver nanoparticles bioconjugated with different proteins (hemoglobin, cytochrome C, BSA and lysozim) were synthesized. SERS results allowed concluding that proteins are chemisorbed on the silver nanoparticules surface. SERS was also used in the low frequency range to characterize the structure of thin deposits of caffeine, a molecule of pharmaceutical interest.Raman spectroscopy and SERS were also used to study nanostructured TiO2:Au thin films. The first stages of the growth of gold nanoparticles in Au doped TiO2 thin films under annealing treatments were studied by low frequency Raman spectroscopy and TEM. Finally, it was shown that SERS effect can be used for the characterization of ultra-thin TiO2 films. With this aim, ultra-thin TiO2 films were deposited by Atomic Layer Deposition on Si substrates functionalized with gold nanoparticles and studied by SERS.