Phd in PHYSICS

Thesis title: Optical sensing of VOCs and viral biomolecules via IR spectroscopy for air pollution monitoring

In current times where climate changes, environmental pollution and pandemic risk are heavily burdening and threatening our society, the scientific community has to face major challenges in order to preserve human and environmental health, safety and equilibrium. An essential element for the application of preventive actions is to have an accurate, efficient and rapid monitoring of air-quality status, in order to immediately understand which is the problem, how to intervene for contrasting it and to guarantee human and nature safety. With this objective, the work reported in this PhD thesis is the result of a project aiming to introduce a technological advancement in the field of (bio)sensing, overcoming the limitations of current detection tools with the design of a novel optical sensing strategy based on Infrared (IR) spectroscopy for the detection of chemical and biological pollutants in air. In the first part, the development of an IR spectroscopy sensor system for the detection of gaseous Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) is shown. Nine toxic chemical pollutants are studied both alone and in mixtures and a Machine Learning (ML) algorithm is combined with the optical setup, providing in the overall a high-sensitive, specific and rapid detection. In the second part, IR spectroscopy is applied for the optical detection of viral biomarker, aiming to airborne pathogen monitoring. Spike protein from SARS-CoV-2 virus is considered and, combining spectral data with computational analysis and predictions, the characterization and structural investigation of S protein domains is provided, focusing both on the wild type virus and on different mutants. Finally, preliminary results are reported about the design of a biofunctionalized sensor platform based on the technology of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs) biocomposites. This work falls in the context of sustainability, aiming to face environmental and health emergencies and to contribute to the building of a green society, bringing innovations in the field of health, occupational and environmental safety.