Overview
Nowadays
there is an increasing demand for
simple, fast, costless, eco-friendly and portable analytical equipment
susceptible to be integrated into wireless networks for screening and
on-site measurements as a complement to the powerful coupling between
ICP and GC,LC instruments and MS detection, extremely selective,
sensitive and accurate but also considerably expensive, non-portable,
not eco-friendly and requiring highly specialized personnel. In the
times of Internet and 5G, the physical centralization of environmental,
food and suspiciously illegal samples (which have to be transported and
preserved) and MS-based instruments in a few huge laboratories must
give way to an electronic centralization of data transmitted through
Internet and smartphones from huge networks of wireless stations where
many measurements are made in real time. Ideally, such networks should
also involve actuators able to modify the conditions of the monitored
system depending on the measured values.
Chemical sensors alone, integrated into sensor
arrays and electronic tongues or used as detectors in flow injection
analysis or liquid chromatography systems are very well positioned
candidates to furnish this decentralized strategy complementary to that
of centralized laboratories. However, many issues arising from the lack
of selectivity, sensitivity or reproducibility of chemical sensors
demand a deep research in this field to place them in the top of
decentralized and green chemistry.
For this purpose, in this project both
coordinated research groups join forces to attain two main objectives:
On the one hand to develop
biosensors and bioanalysis systems with enhanced recognition elements
taking advantage of the new developments of (Bio)Chemistry,
Spectroelectrochemistry, Materials Science and Chemometrics and,
on the other hand, to Apply such
developments, by means of electronic tongues, hybrid sensors and
separation systems, to the identification/classification of samples in
the fields of food analysis and homeland security and to the
quantification of persistent and emerging contaminants in water,
wastewater and food samples.
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