SENSOR – “Nuovi sensori Real Time per la determinazione di contaminazioni
chimiche e microbiologiche in matrici ambientali e biomedicali“
Photonic Networks&Technologies National Laboratory (PNTLab)
Project co-financed under Tuscany POR FESR 2014-2020 funding scheme
Principal Investigator: Dr. Veronica Toccafondo
Several industrial, technological and biomedical areas have the urgent need to keep the level of chemical and microbiological contamination in water and work environments under control. Ideally, the control system should be able to give a response in the shortest possible time, with a high level of sensitivity and high specificity. Current laboratory analytical techniques can satisfy the last two requirements, but they are not able to meet the possibility of real-time detection. In addition to this, it is important to keep in mind that contaminants of interest in “natural” conditions are unlikely to be isolated without interfering substances and/or organisms and they are often dispersed at low concentrations. The idea behind SENSOR is therefore to be able to build devices able to detect undesired agents that can affect the production/activity process in real-time, in a simple, rapid, economical and sensitive way. This will be done through the development of real-time innovative sensors, and multi-sensor platforms, with high sensitivity for the dynamic monitoring, of chemical and microbiological contaminants of air and water, and their integration into an innovative computerized acquisition platform for the management and sharing of data.