February Monthly Meeting

Spectroscopy Society of Pittsburgh Monthly Meeting

TECHNOLOGY PROGRAM – 8:15PM
Alexander Star, University of Pittsburgh

“Nano-gold Decorated Carbon Nanostructures and Their Applications”
Single-walled carbon nanotubes and more recently graphene have attracted considerable interest for the development of chemical sensors. These carbon nanostructures are just one atom thick, and their electronic properties are extremely sensitive to adsorption of chemical species on their surface. When decorated with metal nanoparticles, these nanostructures exhibit a large and selective electronic response toward many analytes with potential applications in industrial sensors and medical diagnostics. Carbon nanostructures can also be used as nano-carriers for applications in medical therapeutics. To this end, we developed cup-shaped carbon nanostructures, which have an elliptical hollow space that can be corked by gold nanoparticles at the opening. To illustrate the potential of corked nanocups as drug delivery systems, loading with common fluorescent dyes, as well as chemotherapeutic drugs, was performed. By using Raman spectroscopy, we were able to demonstrate the loading and release of the cargo in biochemical model systems and tumor-associated cells. …read more

TECHNICAL FORUM – 5:30 PM
Peter Greenlaw, Author

“The New Health Conversation”
Peter Greenlaw is the world’s foremost health science investigator on toxins and aging. He’s the author of “Why Diets are Failing Us”. …read more