ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Melanin’s vibrational behaviour as a function of temperature and hydration to give insight to its heat capacity and conductivity behaviour

Abstract: Electroceuticals is the attempt to “…speak the electrical language of the nerves to achieve higher treatment effect”. Thus, the search is on to develop devices to enhance personalised healthcare. Part of creating such devices is selecting materials that can interface between biology and computers. One such material is the skin pigment melanin since it is bio-compatible and sustains electrical current. Recently we obtained electrical and heat capacity measurements (as a function of hydration and temperature) on melanin that showed unusual low temperature behaviour. The implications are that there are physical structural differences between hydrated and dry melanin, which changes its electrical conduction. We wish to use inelastic neutron scattering to probe the structure of hydrated melanins via its vibrational spectra and correlate it to our previous measurements.

Principal Investigator: Dr Bernard Mostert
Experimenter: Mr Joao Paulin
Experimenter: Professor Boris Gorshunov
Experimenter: Dr Hamish Cavaye
Experimenter: Dr Kostya Motovilov
Experimenter: Professor Paul Merdeith
Experimenter: Dr JOSE MARTINEZ-GONZALEZ

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1910171

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1910171

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
Select the data format above to find out more about it.

Data Citation

The recommended format for citing this dataset in a research publication is as:
[author], [date], [title], [publisher], [doi]

For Example:
Dr Bernard Mostert et al; (2019): Melanin’s vibrational behaviour as a function of temperature and hydration to give insight to its heat capacity and conductivity behaviour, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1910171

Data is released under the CC-BY-4.0 license.