Visualized Surface Plasmon Nanophotonics Biochemical Sensor for Food Safety Monitoring

<p>NON-TECHNICAL SUMMARY:<br/>Nanoscale sensor technologies provide enormous potentials for chemical and biological sensing applications in US agriculture and food systems. Low cost, realizable, and easy-to-use nano-sensors are very desirable in food processing industry for fast detection of contaminant chemicals and pathogens in liquid foods, such as juices and milks. In this project, Prof. Junpeg Guo and his students will investigate new surface plasmon nanophotonics sensor technologies for cost-effective detection of chemical contaminants in liquid foods. The objective of the project is to demonstrate a visualized surface plasmon nanophotonics sensor that can be easily used by workers in food processing production lines. Proposed visualized biochemical sensor uses surface plasmon resonance as the sensor transduction mechanism for fast detection of chemicals and pathogens on nanostructure surfaces. The surface plasmon resonance will be measured by a low cost CCD in a newly invented spectrometer sensor platform. The shift of surface plasmon resonance due to bonding of contaminant chemicals can be captured by a CCD and visualized on a display monitor. Therefore, workers in the food processing production lines can see when contaminant chemicals are present in the processed foods. The research effort in this project will lead to new nano-sensor technologies that will improve the safety of U.S. agriculture and food systems.
<p>APPROACH: <br/>The method for realizing innovatively new integrated plasmonic nanophotonics chemical sensors is based on super-period resonance nanostructure plasmonic photonics grating concept invented by the PI of this project. The method can help realize the new chemical sensors smaller, faster, easy to use, more realiable and with lower cost.