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Full-Text Articles in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology

Label-Free And Aptamer-Based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy For Detection Of Food Contaminants, Shintaro Pang Nov 2016

Label-Free And Aptamer-Based Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy For Detection Of Food Contaminants, Shintaro Pang

Doctoral Dissertations

The development of analytical methods to detect food contaminants is a critical step for improving food safety. Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is an emerging detection technology that has the potential to rapidly, accurately and sensitively detect a wide variety of food contaminants. However, SERS detection becomes a challenge in real complex matrix, such as food, since non-specific matrix signals have the potential to drown out target associated Raman peaks. In this dissertation, we focused on the development and application of label-free, aptamer-based SERS in order to improve the accuracy and specificity of target contaminant detection in food. To accomplish …


Investigate The Interactions Between Silver Nanoparticles And Spinach Leaf By Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Mapping, Zhiyun Zhang Nov 2016

Investigate The Interactions Between Silver Nanoparticles And Spinach Leaf By Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopic Mapping, Zhiyun Zhang

Masters Theses

Owing to their increasing application and potential toxicity, engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) have been considered as a potential agricultural contaminant that may pose unknown risk to human beings. However, many techniques require invasive and complicated sample preparation procedures to detect and characterize engineered nanomaterials in complex matrices. In the first part of this thesis, we present a non-destructive and label-free approach based on surface enhanced Raman spectroscopic (SERS) mapping technique to qualitatively detect and characterize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs), on and in spinach leaves in situ. We were able to detect the clearly enhanced signals from AuNPs at 15 to 125 nm …


Morphological And Material Effects In Van Der Waals Interactions, Jaime C. Hopkins Jul 2016

Morphological And Material Effects In Van Der Waals Interactions, Jaime C. Hopkins

Doctoral Dissertations

Van der Waals (vdW) interactions influence a variety of mesoscale phenomena, such as surface adhesion, friction, and colloid stability, and play increasingly important roles as science seeks to design systems on increasingly smaller length scales. Using the full Lifshitz continuum formulation, this thesis investigates the effects of system materials, shapes, and configurations and presents open-source software to accurately calculate vdW interactions. In the Lifshitz formulation, the microscopic composition of a material is represented by its bulk dielectric response. Small changes in a dielectric response can result in substantial variations in the strength of vdW interactions. However, the relationship between these …


Enzyme Stabilization In Hierarchical Biocatalytic Food Packaging And Processing Materials, Dana Erin Wong Jul 2016

Enzyme Stabilization In Hierarchical Biocatalytic Food Packaging And Processing Materials, Dana Erin Wong

Doctoral Dissertations

The partnership of biocatalysts and solid support materials provides many opportunities for bioactive packaging and bioprocessing aids beneficial to the agricultural and food industries. Biocatalysis, or reactions modulated by enzymes, allows bioactive materials to assist in bringing a substrate to product. Enzymes are proteins which catalyze reactions by lowering the activation energy required to drive the production of a desired product. Enzymes are commonly utilized in food processing as catalysts with specificity in order to enhance product quality through the production of beneficial food components, and to break down undesirable components that may be harmful or may decrease product quality. …