3D printed SERS device detects trace pesticides in water

Described in the journal Macromolecular Materials and Engineering, the device uses a chemical analysis tool called surface-enhanced Raman scattering, or SERS, which analyses the interaction of light with molecules to detect the composition of sample materials. When light hits molecules, it scatters in a way that has distinctly different frequencies depending on molecular structure.

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The research team developed a new more portable method of testing that could use affordable, 3D-printed materials to adsorb molecules from water samples and deliver accurate initial results in the field. They tested the ability of several different architected designs of the 3D-printed cellular materials to uptake and adsorb molecules of an organic dye called methylene blue before analysing them via a portable Raman spectrometer. Test strips containing silver nanoparticles were found to be capable of detecting molecules of pesticides at concentrations as low as one micromolar – equivalent to one molecule of pesticide to a million molecules of water.