Gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs) were prepared in water, acetonitrile and isopropanol by laser ablation methodologies. The average characteristic (longer) size of the NPs obtained ranged from 3 to 70 nm. 4-Aminobenzebethiol (4-ABT) was chosen as the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) probe molecule to determine the optimum irradiation time and the pH of aqueous synthesis of the laser ablation-based synthesis of metallic NPs. The synthesized NPs were used to evaluate their capacity as substrates for developing more analytical applications based on SERS measurements. A highly energetic material, TNT, was used as the target compound in the SERS experiments. The Raman spectra were measured with a Raman microspectrometer. The results demonstrate that gold and silver NP substrates fabricated by the methods developed show promising results for SERS-based studies and could lead to the development of micro sensors.

Detection of Explosive Related Chemicals (ERCs) emanating from landmines is strongly influenced by fate and transport processes in variably saturated soils, which are affected by many environmental factors. To study the fate and transport behavior of ERCs in soils, it is necessary to conduct experiments is physical models designed for this purpose. Sampling and analysis of the chemicals in soil water and air is one of the most important components of this design.In this project, air and water sampling devices and methods for sampling TNT and DNT in a tropical sandy soil were studied. Different stainless steel porous samplers were evaluated to determine sampling volumes and efficiencies. Results show that they can be used with proper extraction vacuum and pore size depending on soil water content. The stainless steel porous samplers show no or little effect of the sampling efficiencies of TNT and DNT.