Cylindrospermopsin cyanobacterial toxin adsorbtion on plasmonic nanoparticles, trace detection and probing its assessment in environmental waters from Transylvania, Romania and in aquatic products

In this project we propose to develop a fast, sensitive, prompt and cheap analytical methodology for cyanotoxins assessment in Transylvanian (Romania) environmental waters, based on the Raman scattering technique, in conjunction with the plasmonic properties of noble metal nanoparticles exploited with the surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS). Therefore, our approach here is to focus on vibrational characterization of CYN using micro-sampling strategy for standard toxin, micro- SERS for recognition, molecular characterization, understanding its absorption mechanism and functional groups involved in adsorption, establishing the SERS detection limit and excitation profile, and prospecting its identification in fish ponds, natural recreation waters or aquatic products.  Plasmonic -based micro-SERS approach will be extended to in situ analysis with highly sensitive portable instruments, opening an avenue for reliable in situ environmental monitoring programs in Romania.