An Advanced SERS Water Monitor for Chemical and Biological Analytes

The proliferation of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons continues to pose a threat to U.S. national security. The threat to armed forces can be reduced by early detection of deleterious agents prior to any human contact. The probability of usingsuch weapons by a hostile force increases as they become more prevalent. This further emphasizes the need for field deployable systems that are capable of detecting chemical agents and alerting forces to their location. Luna Innovations will address thiscritical need through integration of technology demonstrated during the Phase I program into a complete detection system. Luna has demonstrated battery-powered optical fiber support electronics having a wireless communication system with globalpositioning capability, a fiber optic based biosensor utilizing immobilized enzymes to detect chemical agents, and an air sampling system that is capable of providing a liquid based sample. During the Phase II program, Luna Innovations and its teammembers propose to complete development and commercialization of the field deployable chemical point detection network. Luna believes this technology will benefit the U.S. military and numerous commercial applications by improving the sampling time,sensitivity, flexibility, portability, and selectivity of current detection system technology. Research concerning a miniature detection system with wireless and GPS capability will yield high-resolution, low-cost, multi compound, affinity systems formilitary and municipal emergency response and rescue operations. Corridor opportunities include 1) chemical/biological agent detection, 2) bioremediation, 3) drinking and wastewater monitoring, 4) large-scale, high-speed testing in the medical field, 5)chemical analysis, and 6) intelligent process monitoring of advanced materials.