We present complex achiral and chiral vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectra at the air/ water interface of protein solutions by using heterodynedetected VSFG. Bovine serum albumin, pepsin, concanavalin A, and α-chymotrypsin were measured as model proteins. The obtained achiral Im[χ (2) ] spectra gave us insights into the molecular orientation of protein molecules and water at the interface. From the chiral Im[χ (2) ] spectra in the NH stretching and amide I regions, the secondary structures of the interfacial proteins were deduced. We attributed the chiral signals in the amide I and NH stretching regions to the interface on the basis of the phase of the signals. All the achiral and chiral spectra in each region showed the same sign despite different secondarystructure contents of the examined proteins. Real-time observation of the spectral change of α-chymotrypsin was also performed by heterodyne-detected chiral VSFG. The signal intensity of the chiral Im[χ (2) ] spectra in the NH stretching and amide I regions decreased on the scale of 10 min, originating from the decrease of the portion of antiparallel β-sheet conformation in the molecule. The conformational change occurred not in the bulk but at the interface. Heterodyne-detected achiral and chiral VSFG are capable of addressing the molecular orientation and conformation of proteins at air/water interfaces.
■ INTRODUCTIONIn living organisms, most of the intracellular enzymic processes occur at phase boundaries, that is, the membrane−water interface. At interfaces, protein molecules change their conformation and molecular orientation from those in bulk and then function properly. Understanding the molecular functionality of proteins in living systems requires gaining information not only on bulk but also on interfacial properties. In technological applications, the characterization of interfacial proteins at the molecular level is essential for developing functioning biomaterials such as biocatalysis and biosensors. Thus, determination of secondary structure and molecular orientation of proteins at interfaces is highly important to understand and control the function of proteins. However, there are few methods that investigate interfacial proteins in situ without staining, 1−4 while the tools for studying their properties in bulk have been well established.Vibrational sum frequency generation (VSFG) spectroscopy is suited for studying molecules adsorbed at interfaces. VSFG is a second-order nonlinear spectroscopy, which provides us vibrational spectra reflecting molecular structure with high surface specificity. 5 So far, many studies of proteins at various interfaces have been performed by using homodyne-detected VSFG, and molecular level insight has been obtained. 6−12 Recently, VSFG has been extended to the heterodyne detection scheme, which enables us to determine the phase of the second-order nonlinear susceptibility, χ (2) . 13−15 The phase carries the information on the polar molecular orientation. Contrastingly, in the conventional homod...