Pushing Raman spectroscopy over the edge: purported signatures of organic molecules in fossil animals are instrumental artefacts - Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 Accéder directement au contenu
Article Dans Une Revue BioEssays Année : 2021

Pushing Raman spectroscopy over the edge: purported signatures of organic molecules in fossil animals are instrumental artefacts

Résumé

Widespread preservation of fossilized biomolecules in many fossil animals has recently been reported in six studies, based on Raman microspectroscopy. Here, we show that the putative Raman signatures of organic compounds in these fossils are actually instrumental artefacts resulting from intense background luminescence. Raman spectroscopy is based on the detection of photons scattered inelastically by matter upon its interaction with a laser beam. For many natural materials, this interaction also generates a luminescence signal that is often orders of magnitude more intense than the light produced by Raman scattering. Such luminescence, coupled with the transmission properties of the spectrometer, induced quasi-periodic ripples in the measured spectra that have been incorrectly interpreted as Raman signatures of organic molecules. Although several analytical strategies have been developed to overcome this common issue, Raman microspectroscopy as used in the studies questioned here cannot be used to identify fossil biomolecules.

Dates et versions

hal-03546178 , version 1 (27-01-2022)

Identifiants

Citer

Julien Alleon, Gilles Montagnac, Bruno Reynard, Thibault Brulé, Mathieu Thoury, et al.. Pushing Raman spectroscopy over the edge: purported signatures of organic molecules in fossil animals are instrumental artefacts. BioEssays, 2021, 43 (4), pp.2000295. ⟨10.1002/bies.202000295⟩. ⟨hal-03546178⟩
33 Consultations
0 Téléchargements

Altmetric

Partager

Gmail Facebook X LinkedIn More