Grant: Research Tools and Instruments

In this application, Dr. Agarwal, Dr. Gaber and Dr. Trevani urgently require a state-of-the-art Raman Spectroscopy instrument. The requested instrument by Renishaw allows for probing the vibrational fingerprint of molecules enabling the user to gain chemical and eventually structural information of the sample in its probed environment. The team's research programs focus on label-free and non-invasive detection and differentiation of cannabinoid varieties in human breath, blood and the vascular environment for law enforcement and point-of-care (POC) diagnostic applications, advanced materials for energy storage and plasma applications in material and waste characterization, environmental control, and data analytics for industrial applications. One of the most versatile techniques to fulfill the criteria of being non-invasive and label-free is a Raman microscope which is absolutely essential for the proposed research program. The Raman spectroscopy instrument is the secure `anchor' which will kickstart Dr. Agarwal's research program and advance Dr. Gaber's and Dr. Trevani's research programs, hence there is an urgent need for the Raman instrument. The Raman instrument will critically facilitate all the research programs mentioned and will lead to significant advancements in current knowledge of the chemicals in consideration by providing an exhaustive database of their Raman spectra along with their structural and chemical information. Moreover, these results will lead to technological advancement by development of sensors, thus enabling translation of `lab-on-a-chip' to `POC' diagnostics of drug related clinical decisions. The system will contribute to the development of new characterization tools for electrochemical-SERS and Raman studies under a wide range of composition, temperature, and pressure conditions of electro- and photo-catalyst materials in situ under operando conditions. The Raman instrument will support material identification: analyzing unknown samples to identify their composition and molecular structure; structural analysis: investigating the molecular arrangement and conformation of materials; quality control: assessing the purity, stability, and consistency of manufactured products; chemical imaging: mapping the spatial distribution of components within a sample; reaction monitoring: studying chemical reactions in real-time; and surface analysis: probing the surface properties and interactions of materials. The HQP in various disciplines will receive hands-on training on the equipment. Workshops will be conducted on a per semester basis for graduate students interested in gaining first-hand experience on the Raman instrument. This gives their trained HQP an advantage as they are market-ready and gives them a head start as they possess marketable leadership, technical, analytical and communication skills valuable to the photonics, thin film coatings, data analytics, medical diagnostics, drug discovery and cannabis industry.