Micropollutants such as certain pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, pesticides, and other chemicals pose a significant risk despite their very low concentrations, for example when they enter the environment via wastewater. Due to these low concentrations, they are difficult to detect. Their identification currently requires time-consuming and costly laboratory analyses.

MIKA focuses on the development of an innovative detection method for micropollutants in water. The basis for the efficient detection of different pollutant classes is achieved by combining a noble metal nanoparticle array with a molecule-selective approach. The nanoparticles are arranged as spots in an array and functionalized with aptamers. These DNA-based receptors bind selected indicator compounds for contamination in wastewater samples: carbamazepine, diclofenac, and benzotriazole.

Binding to the aptamer receptors occurs via molecular affinity and provides initial information on the pollutant class and molecular properties. This binding is detected in the visible spectral range using a novel detector unit with spatially resolved imaging spectroscopy.

The complex spectral imaging data are analyzed using AI to rapidly assess receptor binding and thus determine the molecular class. This measurement method is label-free and has the potential to be used on site. In addition, specificity is enhanced through the use of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), based on the detection of molecular fingerprint information. The noble metal nanoparticles act as amplifiers of the molecule-specific Raman signal.

The project is funded within the Clusters4Future initiative of the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).

Further information about the project: https://www.thwic.uni-jena.de/

Schematic of the photonic detection of micropollutants in water samples

Schema des photonischen Nachweises von Mikroschadstoffen aus Wasserproben.

Collaboration of the project partners

Zusammenarbeit der Partner im Projekt