This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project is focused on the development of a cyanide detection system. Current methods for cyanide detection are either quite slow and labor intensive, unreliable, or require expensive, instrumentation. The method proposed should result in a portable cyanide detection unit which is rapid, accurate and easily used. The basis of the detection method is the chemical reaction of cyanide with a specially designed surface coating, and the detection of this reaction using surface enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS). Through proper design of the surface coating it should be possible to "tune" the sensitivity of the detection system to a variety of applications. The commercial applications of this technology are significant. There are several thousand active mines utilizing cyanide leach technology to extract gold and silver, and more than 200,000 inactive mines. The ability to rapidly and accurately monitor cyanide use should substantially increase the efficiency of the extraction process, providing large cost savings; it will also greatly facilitate the protection of the environment through monitoring of potentially toxic effluents from existing and inactive mines.
