Introduction

The object of the invention is a new electrochemical sensor based on molecularly imprited polymers, used to detect environmental pollutants belonging to the PFAs family; in particular for detection of Perfluorooctane Sulfonate (PFOS) and its derivatives.
PFAs are organic compounds classified as emerging contaminants, widely used in a variety of industrial and consumer products.

Technical features

Pollution from PFAs is a problem of global interest, due to the characteristics of persistence, bioaccumulation and toxicity of these pollutants, widely used as additives in a variety of industrial products. The current technique for the determination of PFAs is the high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) coupled to mass spectrometry, that requires complex and expensive instrumentation and a complicated pre-treatment of the sample.
The electrochemical sensors, object of the invention, are employed for the detection of PFAs pollutants; specifically, they have a high sensitivity for detection of PFOS and its derivatives and, compared to the most currently used detection techniques, they have significant advantages in terms of ease in measuring and excellent limits of detection at low cost.

Possible Applications

• Laboratories of analytical chemistry: detection of PFOS in liquid media, such as environmental water (e.g. lake water, river water, etc.), and in food or biological samples, such as e.g. blood, milk, beverages, etc.;
• Water suppliers and private citizens: detection of PFOS in environmental water.

Advantages

• Ease of measurement;
• Large availability of instrumentation;
• Excellent limits of detection at low cost;
• Possibility of easy miniaturization and automation of procedures.