Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy and Homeland Security: A Perfect Match?

Abstract

This Nano Focus article reviews recent developments in surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) and its application to homeland security. It is based on invited talks given at the "Nanorods and Microparticles for Homeland Security" symposium, which was organized by one of the authors and presented at the 238th ACS National Meeting and Exhibition in Washington, DC. The three-day symposium included approximately 25 experts from academia, industry, and national laboratories and included both SERS and non-SERS approaches to detection of chemical and biological substances relevant to homeland security, as well as fundamental advances. Here, we focus on SERS and how it is uniquely positioned to have an impact in a field whose importance is increasing rapidly. We describe some technical challenges that remain and offer a glimpse of what form solutions might take.

Raman spectroscopy for detection of imatinib in plasma: A proof of concept

“…Raman spectroscopic (RS) studies in biomedicine, pharmaceutics and homeland security applications (for detection of biomarkers, chemicals, explosives) have already been well documented. [8][9][10] Variants of RS such as drop coating deposition Raman (DCDR) and surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) are known to be sensitive and can facilitate detection up to single molecule level. With DCDR, a type of non-enhanced Raman spectroscopy, applications such as analyzing changes in the relative protein concentrations of aqueous tertiary protein mixtures and determination of albumin glycation have been reported.…”

The Intricate Nature of SERS: Real‐Life Applications and Challenges

“…In the last decades, SERS was used to identify: DNA bases [58], a wide range of explosives and trace materials [59], food additives [60], therapeutic agents [61], different species of pathogenic and nonpathogenic bacteria [62][63][64], protozoa [65], fungi [66,67], and their spores [68], respectively. Furthermore, as previously described, vibrational spectroscopy can be used to study the uniqueness of microorganisms.…”

Large-area and Free-standing 3D Superlattices Induced by Droplet Evaporation

“…The surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy is not only a new powerful analytical technique with ultrahigh sensitivity but also can be used for the biological samples analysis [9] . Unfortunately, there are still two additional serious challenges [10] : One is the quantitative detection by SERS, the other is the necessity of reproducible geometry of "hot spots".…”