Abstract: This invention is a method to enhance by orders of magnitude accurate, real-time, stand-off detection by a sensor using Raman spectra of one or more trace compounds of interest (particularly explosives, bioterror organisms, or Volatile Organic Compounds). A colloid, whose medium of suspension is a liquid solvent with a weak Raman spectrum and in which are suspended particles of a noble metal that are preferentially nano-sized to maximize the surface-to-mass ratio for each particle, forms an impingement base. A sample of this colloid is air-pumped through a sampling module, exposed to air potentially carrying trace molecules from the compound of interest, then sent to a detection module that subjects the sample to Raman spectroscopy. The result is first corrected to obtain a unique Raman spectra from the trace molecules, then matched against Raman spectra in a database. Extensions include modifying, flushing, further processing, or recirculating the colloid sample.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for making a class of molecules synthesized from unsaturated plant oils, and the synthesized class of molecules, such that when compounded with saturated plant oils they improve the physical properties such as low temperature behavior, measured as cold filter plug point and cloud point for biodiesel fuels and pour point for oils and lubricants, as well as other physical properties including viscosity and viscosity index, so that the physical properties of the combined materials approach the physical properties of unsaturated plant oils and find use as base material feed stocks for “Green” fuel, oil, and lubricant products.

Abstract: The present invention is a method for making a chemiluminescent paint whose chemo-fluorescent reaction's active period is controllable as a first-order function of humidity, thus reducing to a second order function the prior art's dependency on ambient temperature, through encapsulating a key reactant in a moisture-sensitive, nano-polymeric structure and combining that encapsulating structure and encapsulated reactant with the other elements necessary for both the excitative and fluorescing reactions of the chemiluminescent paint.