Abstract

In recent years, growing threat of terrorist attacks with use of chemical or biological warfare agents is observed. Biological agents, due to often delayed effects, higher lethality and more difficult detection and identification compared to chemical agents, are especially dangerous. Therefore, rapid detection and discrimination of dangerous biological materials has become a security aim of considerable importance. Various analytical methods, including FTIR spectroscopy combined with statistical analysis have been used to discriminate various bioagents and their background interferents. The applicability for this purpose of another spectroscopic technique, Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS), has also been intensively investigated in recent years. In this work, the results of the application of FTIR technique performed in reflectance mode using Horizontal Attenuated Total Reflectance accessory (HATR) for discrimination of vegetative bacteria, bacterial spores and background interferents are discussed. Applied technique is shown to be capable of distinguishing between vegetative bacteria, bacterial spores and fungi against other biological specimens. In addition, the results of initial studies on application of plasmonic nanostructures for enhancement of Raman scattering signals of bacterial cells are discussed. Our studies have shown that it is possible to obtain Raman scattering signal from single bacterial cell in presence of single plasmonic nanostructure.

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.