Chemosensors in environmental monitoring: challenges in ruggedness and selectivity.
Environmental analysis is a potential key application for chemical sensors owing to their inherent ability to detect analytes on-line and in real time in distributed systems. Operating a chemosensor in a natural environment poses substantial challenges in terms of ruggedness, long-term stability and calibration. This article highlights current trends of achieving both the necessary selectivity and ruggedness: one way is deploying sensor arrays consisting of robust broadband sensors and extracting information via chemometrics. If using only a single sensor is desired, molecularly imprinted polymers offer a straightforward way for designing artificial recognition materials. Molecularly imprinted polymers can be utilized in real-life environments, such as water and air, aiming at detecting analytes ranging from small molecules to entire cells.
Lieberzeit
Peter A
PA
Department of Analytical Chemistry and Food Chemistry, University of Vienna, Waehringer Strasse 38, 1090, Vienna, Austria. peter.lieberzeit@univie.ac.at
Dickert
Franz L
FL
D004563:Electrochemistry; D004566:Electrodes; D004784:Environmental Monitoring / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D004785:Environmental Pollutants / Q000032:analysis*; D054802:Molecular Imprinting; D011108:Polymers / Q000138:chemical synthesis / Q000737:chemistry; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013499:Surface Properties
D004785:Environmental Pollutants; D011108:Polymers