Combinatorial Synthesis and Screening of Sensing Nanomaterial for Warfare Agents

"The overall goal of the proposed program is to provide military personnel with a hand-held analyzer capable of detecting chemical and biological agents, as well as toxic industrial chemicals. This will be accomplished through the use of a newnanocomposite material (metal-doped sol-gel) that enhances analyte specific Raman signals sufficiently to allow identifying and quantifying agents at relevant concentrations (microgram/liter, part-per-billion). Phase I is employing combinatorial chemistryto coat 96-well micro-plates with varying sol-gel compositions and properties. Each micro-plate well is screened for chemical selectivity and surface-enhanced Raman (SER) activity using chemical simulants and potential biological agent signatures. PhaseII will automate the combinatorial synthesis and screening process to allow the generation of large sol-gel nanomaterial libraries to determine the chemical compositions that maximize detection of each chemical agent, bioagent signature chemical, and toxicindustrial chemical by SER spectroscopy. Screening with actual agents will be performed at U.S. Army facilities. Finally, the sol-gel nanomaterial will be designed into sampling systems for discrete or continuous monitoring of air or water by a hand-heldRaman analyzer capable of wireless data transmission. In addition, a prototype analyzer will be built and tested for a Phase III Joint Field Trial."