A New Methodology for Characterization of Environmentally Important Radionuclide Species Via Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS)
Selective and sensitive detection and characterization of radionuclide contaminants in subsurface environments is essential to safely and to cost-effectively locate, treat, isolate or destroy contaminants encountered in DOE's environmental cleanup activity. Currently, techniques for monitoring and characterizing radionuclides rely primarily on liquid scintillation counting, ICP-MS and some limited use of the spectrofluorimetry based on fluorescence of radionuclide species under laser or UV excitation. These techniques require chemical handling, e.g., the use of complexing media, scintillation cocktails and phosphoric acids, in order to enhance signals. Furthermore, only fluorescent radionuclides (U22O+, Cm(III) and Am(III)) can be detected by the last technique. Many environmentally-important radionuclides such as plutonium, neptunium and technetium species have no strong fluorescence signals and, therefore, can not be characterized via fluorescence spectroscopy. The research presented serves to replace existing radionuclide-detection techniques through the development of a novel surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy to selectively and sensitively monitor and characterize the chemical speciation of radionuclides at trace levels. The SERS technique permits both of these measurements to be made simultaneously and results in significant improvement over current methods in reducing time of analysis, cost and sample manipulation.
- Research Organization:
- Oak Ridge National Lab. (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC) (US)
- DOE Contract Number:
- AC05-00OR22725
- OSTI ID:
- 826048
- Resource Relation:
- Conference: 227th American Chemical Society Meeting, Anaheim, CA (US), 03/28/2004--04/01/2004; Other Information: PBD: 31 Mar 2004
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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