Micro-brillouin spectroscopy applied to the glass transition of anti-inflammatory egonol

Abstract

The acoustic properties of anti-inflammatory egonol were investigated by using micro-Brillouin scattering spectroscopy, by use of a 6-pass tandem Fabry-Perot interferometer and an optical microscope specially modified for spectroscopic purposes. The measured Brillouin spectrum was composed of a central peak centered at zero and a Brillouin doublet arising from the longitudinal acoustic waves, i.e. propagating density fluctuations. For the first time, the glass transition of egonol was identified to be about 5°C at which the Brillouin peak position and the half width showed abrupt changes. The substantial damping of acoustic phonons of egonol near the glass transition temperature indicated that the contribution of internal relaxation processes such as small-amplitude librations of side chains to the damping of acoustic phonons may be substantial depending on the internal structure of molecules.