Pulsed laser deposition of pepsin thin films

• Published in: Applied surface science Vol. 247; no. 1; pp. 83 - 88
• Main Authors: Kecskeméti, G., Kresz, N., Smausz, T., Hopp, B., Nógrádi, A.
• Format: Journal Article Conference Proceeding
• Language: English
• Published: Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 15.07.2005; Elsevier Science
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Condensed matter: structure, mechanical and thermal properties; Cross-disciplinary physics: materials science; rheology; Exact sciences and technology; FTIR; Laser deposition; Materials science; Medical sciences; Methods of deposition of films and coatings; film growth and epitaxy; Pepsin; Physics; Pulsed laser deposition; Radiotherapy. Instrumental treatment. Physiotherapy. Reeducation. Rehabilitation, orthophony, crenotherapy. Diet therapy and various other treatments (general aspects); Structure and morphology; thickness; Surfaces and interfaces; thin films and whiskers (structure and nonelectronic properties); Technology. Biomaterials. Equipments. Material. Instrumentation; Thin film structure and morphology; Thin films; Thin films; 87.68.+z; FTIR; Pulsed laser deposition; Pepsin; 81.15.Fg; 68.55.Jk; 87.68.+z Pulsed laser deposition; Fourier transform spectra; Infrared spectra; Film growth; Surface structure
• ISSN: 0169-4332; 1873-5584
• DOI: 10.1016/j.apsusc.2005.01.144

Pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of organic and biological thin films has been extensively studied due to its importance in medical applications among others. Our investigations and results on PLD of a digestion catalyzing enzyme, pepsin, are presented. Targets pressed from pepsin powder were ablated with pulses of an ArF excimer laser ( λ = 193 nm, FWHM = 30 ns), the applied fluence was varied between 0.24 and 5.1 J/cm 2. The pressure in the PLD chamber was 2.7 × 10 −3 Pa. The thin layers were deposited onto glass and KBr substrates. Our IR spectroscopic measurements proved that the chemical composition of deposited thin films is similar to that of the target material deposited at 0.5 and 1.3 J/cm 2. The protein digesting capacity of the transferred pepsin was tested by adapting a modified “protein cube” method. Dissolution of the ovalbumin sections proved that the deposited layers consisted of catalytically active pepsin.