Our latest work has been published in Advanced Functional Materials: “Fluorophobic Effect Enables Selective Detection of PFAS in Water with Electrolyte-Gated Organic Transistors” (https://advanced.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/adfm.202508425).
In this work, we present a label-free sensor based on an electrolyte-gated organic transistor able to detect and discriminate three linear PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances) in water. The sensor can distinguish the fluorinated pollutants by monitoring the non-covalent F-F interactions between the molecules in solution and a fluorinated self-assembled monolayer immobilized on the transistor surface. Our device complies with the regulatory parameters required for these PFAS and can be also used for extracting thermodynamics information about the recognition processes between the sensor and the molecules in solution.
A great work in collaboration between our lab, Pierangelo Metrangolo (Politecnico di Milano), and Lucia Pasquato (Università degli Studi di Trieste) in the framework of the Italian project PRIN-Nifty funded by MUR.
News published by UNIMORE: https://www.magazine.unimore.it/site/home/notizie/articolo820071235.html
Press:
https://www.modenatoday.it/attualita/sensore-unimore-inquinamento-acqua-pfas.html
https://www.ilrestodelcarlino.it/modena/cronaca/sensore-portatile-misura-gli-b497f3b8