Prof. Dr. Mauricio S. Baptista
baptista@iq.usp.br
1986-1990: University of São Paulo, School of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Bsc in Pharmacy
and Biochemistry
1991-1992: University of São Paulo, Chemistry Institute, Department of Biochemistry, Msc Biochemistry. "Ion
binding and exchange in zwitterionic interfaces".
1992-1996: Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, E.U.A. Ph.D. Analytical Chemistry. "New Applications of Near
Infrared Spectrometry".
1996-1997: School of Pharmacy, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, E.U.A. Pos-doctoral fellow in Biophysics and
Photochemistry
1998-2002:, University of São Paulo, Chemistry Institute, Department of Biochemistry, USP-São Paulo,
Assistant professor
RESEARCH
PHOTOACTIVE MOLECULES AND INTERFACES
The competition between electron and energy transfer among excited state species govern the efficiency of a variety
of photoinduced processes including, photosynthesis, light to energy conversion in semiconductor devices, UV-induced
cell damage, photodynamic therapy (PDT) treatments. Understanding how the competition between electron and energy
transfer is controlled has importance to several fields of science. Knowing that the above mentioned phenomena
are influenced by the association of the photoactive molecules with interfaces, it is important to understand how
interfaces affect the competition between electron and energy transfer processes. We use simple membrane mimetic
system (micelles, reversed micelles, vesicles) to understand in detail the effect of interfaces in several photoinduced
processes. This knowledge is then applied to more complex systems, including mixtures of membrane mimetic systems
and interfaces, rigid interfaces of silica-gel and magnetic nanoparticles, mitochondria. We are also studying the
potential application of the silica-gel and magnetic nanoparticle funcionalized with photoactive molecules and
site-directing peptides in PDT as improved photosensitezers.
PUBLICATIONS 97-2002
Baptista, M.S.; Tran, C.D. "Electrical Conductivity, Near Infrared Absorption and Thermal Lens Spectroscopy
studies of percolation of microemulsions" The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 1997, 101, 4209-4217.
Baptista, M.S.; Tran, C.D. "Near Infrared Thermal Lens Spectrometer based on Erbium-Doped fiber Amplifier
and Acousto-optic Tunable Filter and its Application in the Determination of Nucleotides" Applied Optics 1997,
36, 7059-7067.
Baptista, M.S.; Indig, G.L. "Mechanism of Photobleaching of Ethyl Violet Non-Covalently Bound to Bovine serum
Albumin" Chemical Communications, 1997, 18, 1791-1792.
Baptista, M.S.; Indig, G.L. "Effect of BSA Binding on Photophysical and Photochemical Properties of Triarylmethane
Dyes" The Journal of Physical Chemistry B 1998, 102, 4678-4688.
Tran, C.D.; Baptista, M.S.; Tomooka,T. "Determination of Binding Constants by Flow Injection Gradient Technique"
Langmuir 1998, 14, 6886-6892.
Gugliotti,M.; Baptista, M.S.; Dias, L.G.; Politi, M.J. "Single Beam Interface Thermal Lensing", Applied
Optics 1999, 38, 1213-1215.
Baptista, M.S. "Métodos Analíticos UltraSensíveis: Lente Térmica e Técnicas
Correlatas", Química Nova 1999, 22, 565-573.
Rodrigues, M.A.; Brochsztain,S.; Barros,T.C.; Baptista,M.S.; Politi,M.J. "pH-Dependent Excited State Properties
of N,N'-di(2-phosphonoethyl)-1,4,5,8-naphthalenediimide" Photochem. Photobiol. 1999, 70 (1), 35-39.
Schneider,T.; Gugliotti,M.; Politi,M.J.; Baptista, M.S. "Quantitative Determination of Singlet Oxygen by Laser
Deflection Calorimetry" Anal. Lett. 2000, 33 (2), 297-305.
Borba, E. B.; Amaral,C.L.C.; Politi,M.J.; Villalobos,R.; Baptista, M. S. "Photophysical and Photochemical
Properties of Pyranine/Methylviologen Complexes in Solution and in Supramolecular Aggregates: A switchable Complex"
Langmuir 2000, 16, 5900-5907.
Baptista, M.S.; Caldas, I.L.; Baptista, M.S.; Baptista, C.S.; Ferreira,A.A.; Heller, M.V.A.P. "Finding low-dimensional
dynamics in observables from complex and higher-dimensional systems" Physica A. 2000, 287, 91-99.
Schneider,T.; Politi,M.J.; Baptista, M.S. "Development of a Heat-Sensor for the measurement of Reaction Enthalpy
Based on Laser Deflection" Thermochimica Acta 2000, 362 (1/2), 179-184
Schneider, T.; Politi,M.J.; Baptista, M.S. "Measuring Enthalpy Change of Chemical Reactions Using a Recently
Developed Laser Deflection Calorimeter" J.Chem.Educ. 2002, 79, 503-505.
Dias,G.D.; Florenzano,F.H.; Reed,W.F.; Baptista,M.S.; Souza,S.M.B.; Alvarez,E.B.; Chaimovich,H.; Cuccovia,I.M.;
Amaral,C.L.C.; Brasil,C.R.; Romsted,L.S.; Politi,M.J. "Effect of Urea on Biomimetic Systems: Neither Water
3-D Structure Rupture or Direct Mechanism, Simply a more "Polar Water" Langmuir 2002, 18, 319-324.
Junqueira, H. C.; Severino, D.; Dias, L.G. ; Gugliotti, M. ; Baptista, M. S. "Modulation of the Methylene
Blue Photochemical Properties Based on the Adsorption at Aqueous Micelle Interfaces" Physical Chemistry Chemical
Physics 2002,4, 2320-2328.
Rodrigues,M.A.; Tada, D.B., Politi,M.J.; Baptista, M.S. "Porphyrin and naphtalene Diimide functionalized silica-gel
particles. Photophysical and Photochemical Properties" Journal of non-crystalline solids 2002, in press.
Oliveira, C.S.; Branco, K.P.; Baptista, M. S.; Indig, G.L., "Solvent and Concentration Effects on the Visible
Spectra of Tri-Para-Dialkylamino-Sustituted Triarylmethane Dyes in Liquid Solutions" submetido para Spectrochimica
Acta Part A 2002, in press.
Rodrigues,M.A.; Politi,M.J.; Miranda,M.T.M.; Bemquerer,M.P.; Brochsztain,S.; Baptista, M.S. "Porphyrin and
naphtalene Diimide functionalized sílica particles. Photophysical Properties" Chemistry Letters 2002,
6, 604-605.