NASA Logo

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server

Collections About News Help Login
Back to Results
Enhancing SERS by Means of Supramolecular Charge TransferIn a proposed method of sensing small quantities of molecules of interest, surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectroscopy would be further enhanced by means of intermolecular or supramolecular charge transfer. There is a very large potential market for sensors based on this method for rapid detection of chemical and biological hazards. In SERS, the Raman signals (vibrational spectra) of target molecules become enhanced by factors of the order of 108 when those molecules are in the vicinities of nanostructured substrate surfaces that have been engineered to have plasmon resonances that enhance local electric fields. SERS, as reported in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles and elsewhere, has remained a research tool and has not yet been developed into a practical technique for sensing of target molecules: this is because the short range (5 to 20 nm) of the field enhancement necessitates engineering of receptor molecules to attract target molecules to the nanostructured substrate surfaces and to enable reliable identification of the target molecules in the presence of interferants. Intermolecular charge-transfer complexes have been used in fluorescence-, photoluminescence-, and electrochemistry-based techniques for sensing target molecules, but, until now, have not been considered for use in SERS-based sensing. The basic idea of the proposed method is to engineer receptor molecules that would be attached to nanostructured SERS substrates and that would interact with the target molecules to form receptor-target supramolecular charge-transfer complexes wherein the charge transfer could be photoexcited.
Document ID
20090011201
Acquisition Source
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
Document Type
Other - NASA Tech Brief
External Source(s)
http://www.techbriefs.com/component/content/article/5014
Authors
Wong, Eric (California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)
Flood, Amar (Indiana Univ. Bloomington, IN, United States)
Morales, Alfredo (Sandia National Labs. CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 24, 2013
Publication Date
March 1, 2009
Publication Information
Publication: NASA Tech Briefs, March 2009
Subject Category
Man/System Technology And Life Support
Report/Patent Number
NPO-43791
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Public Use Permitted.

Related Records

IDRelationTitle20090011183Collected WorksNASA Tech Briefs, March 2009
No Preview Available