Nofsinger J B, Forest S E, Eibest L M, Gold K A, Simon J D
Department of Chemistry, Duke University, Durham, NC 27708-0347, USA.
Pigment Cell Res. 2000 Jun;13(3):179-84. doi: 10.1034/j.1600-0749.2000.130310.x.
Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) is used to examine the structure of natural and synthetic melanins. Eumelanin from Sepia officinalis and synthetic eumelanin are found to be structurally dissimilar. The natural sample has a significant structural order with subunits that have a lateral dimension of approximately 15 nm. The synthetic samples, on the other hand, appear to be amorphous solids. These results lend support for the existence of fundamental structural units proposed from the analyses of wide-angle X-ray diffraction measurements and previous mass-spectrometry results. These findings also provide insight into the disparate photophysical behavior of Sepia and synthetic eumelanin.
扫描电子显微镜（SEM）用于研究天然和合成黑色素的结构。发现来自乌贼墨的真黑素和合成真黑素在结构上存在差异。天然样品具有显著的结构有序性，其亚基的横向尺寸约为15纳米。另一方面，合成样品似乎是无定形固体。这些结果支持了通过广角X射线衍射测量分析和先前质谱结果提出的基本结构单元的存在。这些发现还为乌贼墨和合成真黑素不同的光物理行为提供了见解。
