The SAFE WATER project focuses on the design and realization of a novel, portable platform based on optical WGM microbubble resonators able to perform a label-free multiplexed detection and determination of emerging microcontaminants (EMCs) in different water matrices with high sensitivity and extremely low limit of detection. The SAFE WATER project has been funded within the framework of the PhotonicSensing Call and the European Union recent requirements with respect to the monitoring and control of the wastewater quality (EU directive 2013/39 and 2015/495).

Due to the multidisciplinary nature of the project, a strong synergistic interaction among all the involved partners with different expertise in chemistry, physics and engineering is requested in order to develop each basic block of the integrated final instrument. The consortium gathers together research organizations and industrial representatives coming from Poland, Portugal and Tuscany.

The ultimate goal of the project is the realization of a portable bio-sensing instrument (prototype) based on optical microbubble resonators (OMBRs) for the in-situ label-free determination of multiple EMCs with high sensibility and low limit of detection, able to give results in very short times.

Scientific and Technical Objectives

•development of a WGM microbubble resonator array integrated on a chip as optical sensing element capable of multiplexed pollutant (EMCs) determination

•development of chemical/biochemical functionalization protocols, based on antibodies and molecular imprinting polymers (MIPs), in order to modify the OMBRs inner surface with highly selective and specific chemo/bio-chemo receptors against the selected EMCs

•development of the microfluidic circuit, in which the liquid pollutant sample is initially mixed with the reagents required and then directed to the integrated chip – represented by the WGM microbubble resonator array – for the optical determination

•development of the optoelectronic system for the interrogation of the WGM array and the data processing and management

SAFE WATER is funded under the European Commission’s (Horizon 2020 program) and the National Cofunding Agencies in the framework PhotonicSensing ERA-NET Cofund (Tuscany Region for Italy, FCT for Portugal, NCBR for Poland).