General and specific objectives: The proposal focuses on knowledge-based engineering for developing an e-tongue like sensor for histamine evaluation in food products (the emphasis is placed on meat products, since they seem to be subject to more improper hygiene during production and processing). The general objective of the proposal is the development of an e-tongue like sensor based on modified screen-printed electrode (SPE) structures with an receptor made of porphyrins/metalloporphyrins chemically bound to graphene/carbon nanotubes (the sensitive assembly) to act as antennas and “capture” the histamine molecules. The SPE converts the “sensing” signal of the receptor into a measurable electrical signal.
(1) The specific objectives set as below will lead to the fulfillment of the general objective:
O1 – Development of the sensitive structure → design, fabrication and testing of the sensitive layer towards histamine, using porphyrins/metalloporphyrins and graphene/carbon nanotubes. The main purpose is to develop sensors with reproducible properties produced by scalable, cheap technologies.
O2 – Validation of the e-tongue like sensor in real life samples → a) elaborate an e-tongue like (electrochemical) sensor technology for pure scientific research in order to design well manufactural, highly sensitive, and highly selective and with excellent accuracy for histamine detection; b) testing the e-tongue like sensor to fresh and spoiled food samples to achieve validation.
O3 – Dissemination of the results → use and dissemination of knowledge at multiple levels.