Novel Sampling Tickets for Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) of Chemical and Biological (CB) Threat Materials
SBIR Opportunity Analysis
The Department of Defense’s CBD SBIR topic CBD254-006 seeks a disruptive Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy sampling coupon for detecting trace chemical and biological threat materials. The work calls for physically semi-porous flexible coupons with plasmonic nanoparticles, using one or more patterned SERS substrates to sample residues from surfaces and improve detection of classes such as nerve agents, blister agents, arsenicals, pharmaceutical-based agents, toxins, and fentanyl analogs. Proposals should explain substrate selection, fabrication, pattern consistency, and expected sensitivity and selectivity gains, with compatibility across fielded handheld Raman devices and 785 nm, 830 nm, and 1064 nm wavelengths, and may use surrogates or operationally realistic mixtures for demonstrations. Phase II requires patterned prototype coupons, demonstrations on dilute targets and surface-sampled mixtures, statistically useful replicates at the 80% confidence level, a Bayesian limit of detection for each selected target mixture, and delivery of at least 50 substrates to DEVCOM Chemical Biological Center. The application due date is April 29, 2026 at 4:00 PM UTC.