CHEMICAL SENSOR SYSTEM FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS IN WATER

WE SEEK TO DEVELOP AN INNOVATIVE FIELD-DEPLOYABLE SYSTEM FORDETECTION AND IDENTIFICATION OF ORGANIC CHEMICAL POLLUTANTS IN WATER SOURCES. WE ANTICIPATE THAT THE SYSTEM MAY BE USEFUL FOR NASA'S STATED NEED (12.09) FOR IDENTIFICATION OF ORGANIC COMPOUNDS PRESENT IN THE ONBOARD WATER SYSTEM FOR THE SPACE STATION FREEDOM. THE SYSTEM WILL UTILIZE LASER RAMAN LIGHT SCATTERING AS THE SPECTROSCOPIC SENSOR FORMING THE CORE OF THE APPROACH AND WILL EMPLOY SURFACE ENHANCED RAMAN SCATTERING (SERS) COMBINED WITH FIBEROPTIC COLLECTION OF THE ENHANCED SCATTERED LIGHT SIGNAL IN ITS SAMPLING SYSTEM TO AUGMENT THE NORMALLY LOW INTENSITY RAMAN SCATTERING SIGNAL FROM TRACE MATERIALS.