Thermal luminescence spectra of polyamides and their Maillard reaction with reducing sugars

Thermal luminescence (TL) spectra of polyamides were measured with a Fourier-transform chemiluminescence spectrometer to elucidate the emission mechanism. A TL band of ε-polylysine with a peak at 542 nm observed at 403 K was assigned to the emission due to the interaction of the –CO–NH– group with oxygen molecules by comparison with nylon-6, polyglycine, and polyalanine. When the sample was kept at 453 K, the intensity of the TL band decreased and the wavelength of the peak shifted to 602 nm, which was assigned to the emission due to the interaction of the NH2 group on the side chain with oxygen molecules by comparison with monomeric lysine. A weak emission with a peak at 668 nm was assigned to the advanced glycosylation end products (AGEs) yielded by the Maillard reaction with a catalytic amount of water. To understand this reaction and to examine the TL emission of AGEs, we measured TL spectra of mixtures of polylysine and reducing sugars such as glucose, maltose, lactose, and dextrin. The minimum temperature for TL emission, wavelength of the peak and the relative intensities of the TL emission were found to depend on the size of the sugars.