Other Chemistry Commons^™

The Use Of Electrospun Nanofibers With Gold And Silver Nanostars For The Detection Of Fentanyl Using Surface Enhance Raman Spectroscopy, The Modification Of Current Gc-Ms Methods To Increase Separation And Detection Of Synthetic Cathinones In Mixtures, Daniel Rubin

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Many criminal cases involve the use or sale of illicit substances. The forensic analyst has many different techniques they can use to analyze samples to determine which illicit substance is present. This project aims at developing electrospun nanofibers with nanoparticles to analyze fentanyl by surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy, as well as modifying current GC-MS parameters to enhance separation and analysis of synthetic cathinones. Using the fibers with nanoparticles allowed for the detection of fentanyl standards at 1mg/ml while slowing the oven ramp rate and modifying the hold times led to an increase in separation and better fragmentation patterns for determination. …

The Development Of A Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Method For The Detection Of Synthetic Cannabinoids In Urine, Thaddeus Mostowtt

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use and abuse of synthetic cannabinoids has increased significantly in recent years due to their easy access and growing popularity. Despite having more known drugs become illegal, new synthetic versions of these drugs are being made that have not yet been recognized or classified as illegal substances. Therefore, standard methods may not be able to detect these drugs.

The most common method of screening detection for drugs of abuse in biological samples is the immunoassay. However, the immunoassay method presents some disadvantages, particularly for newly synthesized compounds. More advanced methods have also been used, such as LC-MS; however, these …

Development Of A Surface-Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Method For The Detection Of Benzodiazepines In Urine, Erika L. Doctor

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Benzodiazepines are among the most prescribed compounds for anti-anxiety and are present in many toxicological screens. These drugs are also prominent in the commission of drug facilitated sexual assaults due their effects on the central nervous system. Due to their potency, a low dose of these compounds is often administered to victims; therefore, the target detection limit for these compounds in biological samples is 10 ng/mL. Currently these compounds are predominantly analyzed using immunoassay techniques; however more specific screening methods are needed.

The goal of this dissertation was to develop a rapid, specific screening technique for benzodiazepines in urine samples …

Improving Analytical Utility Of Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy Through Unique Lithographic Substrate Development, Sabrina Marie Wells

Doctoral Dissertations

Surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) has the potential to be a useful analytical technique due to large signal enhancements. Unfortunately, SERS has several drawbacks, including a lack of reproducibility, which inhibits it from being a practical option. These large signals often arise from “hot spots” of extremely high enhancement on nanofeatured metallic substrates, the most common being comprised of aggregated silver colloid. It is difficult to reproducibly create these hot spots due to the randomness of the colloid substrates. However, through controlled substrate fabrication, many problems associated with SERS analysis can be overcome. Electron beam lithography (EBL) combined with reactive-ion …