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For law enforcement and medical professionals, rapid detection of illicit and harmful drugs saves time, resources and even lives. Raman spectroscopy is a well‐established method for substance identification, but until now has not been practical for human intoxication testing. Surface Enhanced Raman Spectroscopy (SERS) substrates have reduced sensitivity and cost barriers, allowing Raman to be successfully applied to noninvasive testing of trace concentrations of drugs in saliva.

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The global cost of corrosion imposes a significant burden on society, with safety and environmental consequences in addition to its direct impact. One challenge to its management is that the process of corrosion is complex, and common experimental techniques provide only limited information. The neutral salt spray test, a standardized test used for the evaluation of the corrosion resistance of steels and coatings, creates an aggressive environment not suitable for many analytical methods. Here, we report the first use of in situ Raman spectroscopy to detect the formation, growth, and evolution of corrosion products on metal surfaces, monitoring a mild steel plate in alternating salt fog and dry atmospheric conditions over a period of eight days to identify and track key corrosion products. Assisted by multivariate curve resolution alternating least squares (MCR-ALS) analysis and online weighing of the sample, we found the chemical conversion of iron hydroxides to oxides takes much longer than the physical drying of the corroded surface. Together, these results pave the way for real-time online observation of corrosion inside a salt fog chamber to obtain chemically relevant information with a single, compact apparatus.