PAGE TITLE
Overview
PAGE SUMMARY
Label-free detection and characterization of molecules is an important tool for detecting a composition of a substance, be it a water, soil, chemical product or biological sample. Its main advantage is the ability to measure quantities of different molecules without knowing their identity in advance. Examples of such label-free detection tools include mass spectrometry and chromatography. While these tools could have a very broad range of applications, their use is limited by relatively high cost and cumbersome testing procedures.
Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) is an alternative platform for label-free molecular detection that is widely used in academic setting. However, its use is also limited by high cost, which is associated with the difficulty of manufacturing SERS substrates that yield reproducible results. As a result, only a couple of companies supply commercial products based on SERS.
Drexel researchers have developed a very inexpensive (cents per slide) and simple method of manufacturing SERS substrates that yield reproducible results with high sensitivity of molecular detection. In addition to much lower manufacturing cost, Drexel’s method enables production of SERS substrates on nearly any surface, including glass and plastic slides, paper, including filter paper, and many others. Drexel’s manufacturing method is adaptable to high scale production in a variety of formats suitable for both laboratory and field applications. The substrates are produced by partial sintering of silver inks at relatively low temperatures following a proprietary protocol.
APPLICATIONS
TITLE: Applications
Chemical detection, forensic chemistry
Water, soil, air pollution control
In vitro diagnostics
Analytical chemistry
ADVANTAGES
TITLE:Advantages
Very low cost of manufacturing – orders of magnitude below current commercial products
Easy scale up
Broad range of substrate materials
IP STATUS
Intellectual Property and Development Status
United States Issued Patent- 8,559,002
https://patents.google.com/patent/US8559002B2/en?oq=8%2c559%2c002
United States Issued Patent- 9,086,380
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9086380B2/en?oq=9%2c086%2c380
United States Issued Patent-9,278,855
https://patents.google.com/patent/US9278855B2/en?oq=9%2c278%2c855
PUBLICATIONS
References
Pubinfo should be the citation for your publication. Publink is the full url linking to the publication online or a pdf.
“Fabrication of flexible and porous Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering (SERS) substrates using nanoparticle inks”. AIP Conference Proceedings 1461, 47 (2012);
http://aip.scitation.org/doi/abs/10.1063/1.4736871
“Microwave monitoring of silver nanoparticle sintering for surface-enhanced Raman scattering substrates”. Journal of Raman Spectroscopy 43(4):588 - 591 · April 2012
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/230272358_Microwave_monitoring_of_silver_nanoparticle_sintering_for_surface-enhanced_Raman_scattering_substrates
Commercialization Opportunities
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Contact Information
Alexey Melishchuk
Associate Director, Licensing
Office of Technology Commercialization
Drexel University
Tel: 215-895-0304
amelishchuk@drexel.edu
3180 Chestnut Street, Suite 104
Philadelphia, PA 19104