2008 SEP 22 - (VerticalNews.com) -- According to recent research published in the journal Applied Spectroscopy, "Surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) using novel silver nanorod array substrates has been used for the detection of pathogenic bacteria. The substrate consists of a base layer of 500 nm silver film on a glass slide and a layer of silver nanorod array with a length of similar to 1 mu m produced by the oblique angle deposition method at a vapor incident angle of W. Spectra from whole cell bacteria, Generic Escherichia coli, E. coli O157:147, E. coli DH 5 alpha, Staphylococcus aureus, S. epidermidis, and Salmonella typhimurium, and bacteria mixtures have been obtained. ...read more

  2008 APR 7 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "Layer-by-layer (LBL) ultra-thin films have been assembled by alternate adsorption of poly(3-thiophene acetic acid) (PTAA) and poly(4-vinyl-pyridine) (P4VP) on planar quartz slides via hydrogen-bonding interaction. Subsequently, the multilayers can be controllably removed by changing the pH values of the aqueous solutions used for film immersion," scientists writing in the journal Applied Spectroscopy report ...read more

  2008 FEB 11 - (VerticalNews.com) -- "In situ surface-enhanced infrared absorption spectroscopy (SEIRAS) was applied to investigate adsorption configurations of pyridine (Py) on platinum, palladium, ruthenium, and rhodium nanoparticle film electrodes," scientists in Shanghai, People's Republic of China report.

  "The results reveal that alpha-pyridyl species predominantly form on Pt electrodes by assuming an edge-on configuration with its ring N and alpha-C atoms bonding to the Pt surface, while on Ru and Rh electrodes pyridine molecules essentially remain intact by adopting a slightly edge-tilted configuration through bonding with its N lone pair electrons. Py adsorption on a Pd electrode may lie in between the above two cases; both alpha-pyridyl species and edge-tilted intact pyridine could be significantly present," wrote Q.X. Li and colleagues, Fudan University ...read more