The main scope of the project is to develop and validate a sensitive, selective and fast responsive sensor based on shear horizontal (SH) Surface Acoustic Wave (SAW) device for the detection of glyphosate (Gly), a hazardous herbicide, from water samples. The high sensitivity of the sensor will be assured by both design and piezoelectric substrate, together with the guiding layer (SiO2, polymer or ZnO), while the selectivity will be provided by using thin layers of molecular imprinting polymers (MIPs), generally considered as artificial mimics that are comparable to the natural receptor, providing more stable and low-cost recognition elements.
The general objectives of the project, in correlation with the Call 2021 are: a) Increasing the level of technological maturity by development of an integrated system for herbicide (glyphosate) detection, including existing SAW microsensors technology and the testing platform, by immobilizing a selective layer on top of the SAW sensing area and data processing, b) Generating new solutions validated in the laboratory for glyphosate determination from real water samples, to be offered to economic agents.