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Research-grade surface plasmon spectrometer

RT-08 from Res-Tec

Surface plasmon spectroscopy (SPS) has established itself as a very powerful technology for labelfree interaction analysis on surfaces in real-time. It utilizes changes in surface sensitive propagation of evanescent waves due to adsorption of molecules. Designed originally for basic research the RT-08 spectrometer combines easy handling and robustness with a maximum in flexibility. The use of high quality components guarantees highest reliability. A novel arrangement of the optical components makes the alignment of the spectrometer fast and simple. The open and modular system allows easy implementation of extensions for microscopy, electrochemistry, fluorescence detection or QCM-D.

Features

Label-free molecular interaction analysis in real time
Maximum flexibility to adapt the system the the needs of the experiment
High-quality components garantee highest reliability
Easy handling and robustness
Open and modular system for easy implementation of extensions for microscopy, electrochemistry, fluorescence detection or QCM-D.

Further information

The RT-08 surface plasmon spectrometer is the result of decade long development of optical evanescent wave spectroscopy set ups within the group of Prof. Wolfgang Knoll (Material Science) at the Max-Planck-Institute for Polymer Research in Mainz, Germany.

Applications

Protein interaction A sensor surface with an immobilised reaction partner is stabilised with buffer solution. Upon injection of a sample solution binding of the molecules is monitored using the kinetic-mode SPR (association step). Flushing back with buffer solution causes a certain percentage of sample molecules to desorb from the surface (dissociation step). Monitoring and modelling these reaction steps gives important information on the binding specifity, concentration, affinity and kinetics of the molecular interaction process.

Measuring glass transition temperature Using surface plasmon spectroscopy and optical waveguide spectroscopy in combination with a ResTec temperature controller it is possible to study thermally induced physical transitions in thin films. One example is the determination of the glass transition temperature of thin to ultrathin polymer layers.

Film formation - layer by layer assembly (LbL) Layer-by-layer deposition was and still is one of the most common applications for SPR spectroscopy. In scan-mode SPR will give information about the film thickness on the metal substrate. LbL of polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEM) is a versatile technique used to fabricate multilayer thin films with tailored properties. First reported in 1991 by Decher et al. polyelectrolyte multilayers find more applications as substrates or coatings. Recent findings demonstrate that different multilayer architectures can promote protein and cell adsorption.