Development of a surface-enhanced Raman sensor for the detection of environmental pollutants

On Jan 14th, Kyle Bantz ’06, a Ph.D. candidate in chemistry at the University of Minnesota, will discuss “Development of a surface-enhanced Raman sensor for the detection of environmental pollutants.” Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) is a powerful analytical technique for the detection of analytes in aquatic environments, largely free from interfering water signals and capable of obtaining unique molecular signatures from structurally similar analytes. These characteristics make SERS an ideal technique for detection of environmental pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs, with 209 congeners), and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). This talk will focus on the modification of traditional SERS substrates for environmental pollutant sensing.