I-Corps: High-sensitivity, optical, universal nanodetection system

在医疗诊断领域，有一组新出现的数据表明，挥发性代谢物是传染病和疾病状态的标志。例如，在患者中发现了囊性纤维化的生物标志物。在病人的呼吸中发现了唾液和肺癌生物标志物。具有痕量检测限的简便方法不仅有利于诊断，而且有利于现场评价。在汽车工业中，人们关注的是一氧化二氮的检测极限和定量实时监测。为了应对这些挑战，该团队提出了表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）传感器，这种传感器成本低，可扩展到大面积，检测极限低。提出了一种在二嵌段共聚物薄膜上制备自组织金属纳米粒子簇作为表面增强拉曼散射（SERS）活性结构的创新方法。基于SERS的传感器提供了表面附近分子的分子指纹，但可重复性和成本问题对技术影响有限。所开发的方法可重复性地产生具有纳米级颗粒间距的尺寸控制纳米颗粒团簇，并且在传感器性能的缩放，成本和点对点可重复性方面取得了重大进展。该团队已经从理论上和实验上确定了光学传感器性能所需的关键几何特性。

In the sector of medical diagnostic, there is an emerging set of data showing that volatile metabolites provide a signature of infectious and disease states. For instance, biomarkers for cystic fibrosis have been found in patients? saliva and lung cancer biomarkers have been found in a patient's breath. A facile method with trace detection limits would benefit not only diagnosis but also point-of-care evaluations. In the automotive industry, there is concern with detection limit and quantitative real time monitoring of nitrous oxide. To address these challenges, this team proposes the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) sensors that are low-cost, scalable to large areas, with low detection limits.An innovative method has been developed for fabricating self-organized clusters of metal nanoparticles on diblock copolymer thin films as surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS)-active structures. Sensors based on SERS provide a molecular fingerprint of molecules near the surface though issues of reproducibility and cost have limited technological impact. The developed method reproducibly produces size controlled nanoparticle clusters with nanometer scale inter-particle spacing and represents a significant advancement in scaling, cost and point-to-point reproducibility in sensor performance. The team has theoretically and experimentally identified key geometric properties desirable for performance as optical sensors.