Espalhamento Raman em policristais de L-alanina deuterados sob pressão

Abstract

In this dissertation we present of Raman spectroscopy on deuterated L-alanine crystals under hydrostatic pressure. L-alanine is one of twenty proteic amino acids, and among them it is the simplest chiral one. L-alanine crystallizes in an orthorhombic (D24) structure with four molecules per unit cell, forming a complex network of seven hydrogen bonds. When one applies pressure on an amino acid crystal the distances between molecules are changed and, eventually, the crystal goes to a new structure with different symmetry. In this work we present the Raman spectra of deuterated L-alanine in the 50 - 2500 cm-1 spectral region with pressures changing from 0 to 6 GPa. Beyond the conventional frequency blue shift of almost all modes, we observed frequency discontinuities of both internal and external modes at 1,5 and 4,5 GPa. These discontinuities were interpreted as structural phase transitions undergone by deuterated L-alanine crystal from the orthorhombic to the tetragonal, and from the tetragonal to a monoclinic symmetry, respectively. This suggestion is based on previous results on non - deuterated L-alanine. The behavion of torcional vibration of ND3 was also studied and a comparison with studies on L-alanine, L-threonine and taurine crystals (related with dimensions of hydrogen bonds) is also given.