REU Site: SENSORS--Design to Implementation IREE project summary October 2007- October 2008

Under an international partnership between Dr. Caroline L. Schauer of Drexel University in Philadelphia, PA and Dr. Sabine Szunerits of the Institut d'Electronique, de Microélectronic et Nanotechnologie in Lille, France, and through a grant from the National Science Foundation, Keith Fahnestock and Holly McIlwee traveled to work in Lille for three months. The research goal was to investigate the selectivity of chitosan-gold nanoparticle thin film interfaces through the localized surface plasmon phenomenon. Upon completion of the program, a chitosan thin film interface had been tailored to the application, and it was found that chitosan has a chromium charge selectivity between trivalent and hexavalent chromium. As a result of this partnership, a paper with Drs. Schauer and Szunerits has been submitted to The Analyst and a poster was presented at the American Chemical Society's Fall 2008 national conference.