Monitoring biomolecular interactions in real time may have just become a lot easier with the first plasmonic chip capable of performing ultra-sensitive infrared absorption spectroscopy in liquid water (the medium in which most biological molecules are naturally found). The new device, developed by a team of researchers at the EPFL in Switzerland and Boston University in the US, overcomes many of the fundamental challenges involved with the extremely strong IR absorption bands of water. It also allows for sampling volumes that are much smaller than those possible with conventional and cumbersome macroscopic optics set-ups……………
http://nanotechweb.org/cws/article/tech/54416
