Intermolecular Hydrogen bonds are strongly involved in many examples of self-assembling structures from biology to materials.  Various conformations and strength of H bonds have been described, depending on the nature of the donor and acceptor involved in the bond but also on the other interactions involved in the system.

Vibrational spectroscopies, and particularly infra-red are relevant techniques to study H bonds and particularly H bonds between amides groups. Several amides bands are considered as good markers of H bond formation and strength. Amide I bond has also been deeply investigated for revealing the secondary structure of numerous proteins. As a matter of fact alpha helix and beta sheet can be differentiated through their Amide I contribution, in agreement with their specific H bonds strength on conformation.

In this work, our interested is driven on different materials or objects self-structured through H bonds between amides or thioamides and their response to pressure up to 10GPa through vibrational spectroscopies. On one hand, we study hybrid organic-inorganic bridged silsequioxane. In these materials, we demonstrate the ability of H to absorb the mechanical constrains by the modulation of the interactions behaving like a spring with a reversible strengthening up to a pressure Pl. We also show that this critical pressure Pl depends on H bond conformation, and on the surrounding structure and interactions. On the other hand, we open our research interest to H bonds involved in the secondary structure of proteins. Pressure has been shown as relevant to study proteins unfolding at low pressures. In our project, we aim at exploring the energy landscape of some specific proteins under pressure (up to 1Gpa), with a particular interest for aggregation states and formation of nano-objects.