An integrated portable Raman sensor with nanofabricated gold bowtie array substrates for energetics detection

Journal Article · Sat Jan 01 04:00:00 EST 2011 · Analyst, The

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1039/c0an00982b· OSTI ID:1081724

Abu Hatab, Nahla A ^[1]; Rouleau, Christopher ^[2]; Retterer, Scott T ^[1]; Eres, Gyula ^[1]; Hatzinger, Paul B. ^[3]; Gu, Baohua ^[1]

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1. ORNL
2. Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL)
3. Shaw Environmental, Inc., Lawrenceville, NJ

An integrated field-portable surface enhaned Raman scattering (SERS) sensing system has been developed and evaluated for quantitative analysis of energetics such as perchlorate (ClO4-) and trinitrotoluene (TNT) at environmentally-relevant concentrations and conditions. The detection system consists of a portable Raman spectrometer equipped with an optical fiber probe that is coupled with novel elevated gold bowtie nanostructural arrays as a sensitive and reproducible SERS substrate. Using the standard addition technique, we show that ClO4- and TNT can be quantified at concentrations as low as 0.66 mg/L (or ~6.6 M) and 0.20 mg/L (~0.9 M), respectively, in groundwater samples collected from selected military sites. This research represents the first step toward the development of a field SERS sensor which may permit rapid, in-situ screening and analysis for various applications including national security, chemical, biological and environmental detection.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL); Center for Nanophase Materials Sciences
• Sponsoring Organization: ORNL work for others
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1081724
• Journal Information: Analyst, The, Journal Name: Analyst, The Journal Issue: 136 Vol. 8; ISSN 0003-2654
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English