Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory

Synchrotron infrared hyperspectral microscopy is a label-free and non-invasive technique well suited for imaging of chemical events in situ. It can track the spatial and temporal distributions of molecules of interests in a specimen in its native state by the molecule’s characteristic vibrational modes. Despite tremendous progress made in recent years, IR hyperspectral imaging of chemical events in biomaterials in liquids remains challenging because of the demanding requirements on environmental control and strong infrared absorption of water. Here we report a multi-phase capillary-driven membrane device for label-free and real-time investigation of enzymatic deconstruction of algal cellulose purified from Cladophora aegagropila.