A High Sensitivity Biosensor to detect the presence of perfluorinated compounds in environment

A novel surface plasmon resonance (SPR) optical fiber biosensor, able to bind perfluorooctanoate and perfluorooctanesulfonate compounds, is presented. In the first step, an ad hoc antibody compound has been designed, produced and tested by ELISA, then, in the second step, the gold surface of a plastic optical fiber sensor has been derivatizated and functionalized with this new bio-receptor, able to bind target analytes with high affinity and selectivity. The experimental data have shown that the developed SPR optical fiber biosensor makes it possible to detect these compounds. One advantage of this approach stems from the possibility to monitor the perfluorinated compounds in the environment exploiting the remote sensing capability offered by the optical fibers. The measurements were performed in laboratory, also exploiting matrices mimicking the real environment. The limit of detection of the assay was 0.21 ppb, a value that is lower than the maximum residue limit fixed by the European Union regulations.