Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Mold spore identification with Raman microspectroscopy

Researchers are using Raman microspectroscopy  (RMS) to rapidly identify common molds. A research article summarized at Phys.org covers a research paper in the April edition of Environmental Science and Technology.  The abstract of the article by Sutapa Ghosal, Janet M. Macher, and Kandra Ahmed provides basic information about this technique.

http://www.ws.chemie.tu-muenchen.de/groups/haisch/techniques0/raman-microscopy/


This technique has also been considered as a way of determining if a white powder contains bacteria.   I have used FTIR (Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy) as another method to sort out white powders.  In one case cornstarch powder was found in an old art exhibit.  The light microscopy showed a starch particle similar to the one below.  The FTIR confirmed the powder as corn starch.

Starch particle above the #7 - photo N. Carlson

1 comment:

  1. Hello, I am writting thesis about Raman spectroscopy and I really like the first picture of Raman microspectroscop´scheme. Do you know where I can find the origin source of this picture? Thanks

    ReplyDelete