NANOPOROUS 3D SUBSTRATES FOR LABEL-FREE TRACE RAMAN DETECTION OF BIOMOLECULES

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This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).0930781TsukrukThis NSF award by Biosensing/CBET program supports work by Professor Vladimir V. Tsukruk from Georgia Institute of Technology on fundamental Raman scattering properties of nanoporous 3D membranes decorated with aggregates of noble metal nanostructures. Surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) substrates designed in this project will be available for ultra-sensitive, label-free probing of trace amount of biomarkers in a biological fluid. Comprehensive analysis of different organic Raman markers and nanoporous structures with variable sizes and shapes will be accompanied with electromagnetic modeling to establish design principles for this SERS platform. The knowledge gained from these fundamental studies will be utilized to optimize 3D SERS substrates with high enhancement factor for two important classes of biomolecules, immunoglobulin G antibody and prostrate specific antigen. These nanoporous SERS structures possess the advantage of large specific surface area available for the tethering of hot spots with multispectral response; precise control of nanopore diameters and their wall thickness, waveguiding capabilities of transparent cylindrical nanostructures; high robustness and flexibility, and very low cost. The ultimate goal of this project is to achieve robust and reproducible trace detection of femto-mole amount of biomolecules with high SERS enhancement. The project will be focusing on enhanced training of graduate students with emphasis on their involvement in highly interdisciplinary research. To enhance this experience and to increase the number of students pursuing advanced degrees in science and engineering the PI will be working with several recruiting programs, including the GT PURA Program, GT-NSF SURF Site and the NSF REU Programs. The PI places continued emphasis on recruiting underrepresented students for summer internships, an area that he has excelled in. Specifically, Tsukruk will develop a new undergraduate course on soft nanomaterials which will combine fundamentals and applications of nanomaterials. Overall, the PI will continue efforts to increase the participation of one underrepresented group, women to a steady level of 35%, which is much higher comparing to conventional 20% STEM female student population in domestic engineering schools.