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

• Published in: Analyst (London) Vol. 8; no. 136
• Main Authors: Abu Hatab, Nahla A, Rouleau, Christopher, Retterer, Scott T, Eres, Gyula, Hatzinger, Paul B., Gu, Baohua
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States 01.01.2011
• ISSN: 0003-2654; 1364-5528
• DOI: 10.1039/c0an00982b

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.