FIGURE 2.

Time-dependent change in the CO recombination trace for samples of COHbE and COHbA encapsulated in a thin sol-gel matrix. The samples were initially encapsulated as the deoxy derivatives and subsequently converted to the CO derivative after allowing the sol-gel to age for several days in an oxygen-free environment. The bathing buffer of the sol-gel films is 0.05 m BisTris OAc, pH 7.0. The progression of traces tracks the normalized absorbance (N.A.) changes in the recombination profile, starting from the initial exposure of the deoxyHb samples to CO binding, laser-induced CO photodissociation, and recombination (see “Experimental Procedures”).