New Material for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy

Advanced Fuel Research, Inc.

East Hartford, CT

The firm has developed a new product that consists of silver nanoparticles embedded in a porous sol-gel glass, which increases Raman scattering by 1 million times or more.

• There is virtually no sample preparation required (samples do not have to be pre-mixed, dried or dissolved in specific solvents or reagents). All common solvents can be used, including water from pH 1 to 10, signals appear in less than 1 second, the sol-gels are active for 1 year or more, the vials can be used with any commercial Raman Spectrometer and, most importantly, the SERS activity can be duplicated from vial-to-vial allowing reproducible and quantitative measurements.

• SERS vials have been sold to R&D laboratories worldwide, first by Advanced Fuel Research, Inc. (AFR) and now by Real-Time Analyzers, Inc. (RTA), a spin-off company from AFR.
• For additional information, visit Real-Time Analyzers, Inc. or contact Advanced Fuel Research. In August of 2001, AFR won its fourth R&D 100 Award, for Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy. The vials were also patented (US No. 6,623,977).

• The SER active sol-gels were developed for NASA to provide trace chemical analysis with potential applications for life support systems through continuous water quality monitoring and for astronaut health assessment through urine and blood analysis.

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Curator: SBIR Support                 10/25/05