ISIS Neutron and Muon Source Data Journal

Proton mobility in hydrated melanin as a function of temperature

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 measurements on melanin that showed that a major charge carrier, the proton, changes its conduction/mobility behaviour as a function of temperature and hydration. We wish to understand this change using quasi elastic neutron scattering, since it is excellent for probing proton dynamics. The key outcome is to extract proton dynamics (as a function of hydration and temperature) and then model the data. This may give insight into device design.

Principal Investigator: Dr Bernard Mostert
Local Contact: Dr Ian Silverwood
Experimenter: Dr JOSE MARTINEZ-GONZALEZ
Experimenter: Professor Paul Merdeith
Experimenter: Professor Boris Gorshunov
Experimenter: Mr Joao Paulin
Experimenter: Dr Hamish Cavaye
Experimenter: Dr Kostya Motovilov
Experimenter: Mr Paul Hughes
Experimenter: Dr Jan Goeran Gluschke

DOI: 10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1910255

ISIS Experiment Number: RB1910255

Publisher: STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source

Data format: RAW/Nexus
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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): Proton mobility in hydrated melanin as a function of temperature, STFC ISIS Neutron and Muon Source, https://doi.org/10.5286/ISIS.E.RB1910255

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