A SERS-BASED ANALYZER FOR POINT AND CONTINUOUS WATER MONITORING OF CHEMICAL AGENTS AND THEIR HYDROLYSIS PRODUCTS

摘要

Protection of military personnel and civilians from water supplies poisoned by chemical warfare agents (CWAs) requires an analyzer that has sufficient sensitivity (μg/L, ppb), specificity (differentiate the CWA from its hydrolysis products), and speed (less than 10 minutes) to be of value. In an effort to meet these requirements, we have been investigating the ability of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) to detect cyanide and sulfur mustard in water. In our work, we have developed a novel SERS-active material that consists of a porous glass with trapped metal particles. Previously, we coated the inside walls of glass vials and measured cyanide at 1 mg/L in water in as little as 1 minute. However, measurements of sulfur mustard have only been measured to 10 mg/L. Recently, we filled glass capillaries with the SERS-active material. Here we describe measurements of cyanide, sulfur mustard, and it's hydrolysis product, thiodiglycol, using these capillaries and a portable Raman analyzer suitable for point and continuous water monitoring.