There are several techniques for the investigation of peptides' conformation. The electrospinning technique may induce conformational changes to peptides due to the application of elongating forces from the electric field. What are the (best) preferred techniques to investigate the peptide conformation in the solution & in the solidified (nano)-fibers?
One of the easiest ways to study the conformation of polypeptides is vibrational spectroscopy, either FT-IR or Raman spectroscopy. If you wish to use FT-IR, try not to use the KBr pellet technique since grinding of the sample and pressing it with KBr powder at high pressure likely influence the conformation of the sample. Instead, you can use diffuse reflectance if you has the attachment, or diffuse transmittance if you have non-woven nano fibers. Diffuse transmittance technique is rather unknown technique. Here is the reference.
"Diffuse Transmittance Spectroscopy of Polymeric Fibers," A. Taboudoucht and H. Ishida, Appl. Spectrosc., 43, 1016 (1989).
Another approach that can be used for the fibrous samples is Raman spectroscopy. Conformation of polypeptides by Raman has been extensively studies in the 1970 and 1980s. Polypeptide chain changes its conformation via different type of hydrogen bonding, either alpha-helics or beta-sheet. These show different amide bands depending on the conformation and can easily be detected.
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