Plasmonic-based Raman sensor for ultra-sensitive detection of pharmaceutical waste
Speaker: Ali Khosravi
Affiliation: University of South Carolina
Date: November 21st
Abstract: The speaker will give a lecture with material based on a paper published in Environ. Sci.: Nano 11, 2083 (2024). “Pharmaceutical waste, particularly piperidine, poses a significant risk to water and food safety due to its toxicity. This study introduces a cost-effective plasmonic-based surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensor featuring silver triangular cavities with a 5 nm SiO₂ layer for enhanced stability. The sensor achieves high sensitivity, detecting piperidine at concentrations as low as 10⁻⁸ M in water and ethanol, even with low numerical aperture optics (N.A. 0.3). It reliably distinguishes analytes and identifies specific piperidine peaks unaffected by interference. The device’s durability and portability make it ideal for affordable, rapid environmental monitoring and analysis.”