Thanks to their characteristics of speed, portability and low-cost, the biosensors can find application in a series of fields from agrifood, to health care, passing through aerospace and outodoor/indoor pollution detection in a market that should expand up to $ 30 billion worldwide by 2024. Due to the large amount of compounds that need to be monitored, the fabrication of easy-to-use and cheap sensors is essential.
The ElectroSpray Ionization (ESI) technique has proven to perform excellently in the deposition of enzyme thin films on any conductive substrate, through solution nebulization.
At ISM the ESI process has been exploited for the first time as an immobilisation method to deposit Laccase enzyme on Screen Printed Electrodes (SPE) in order to obtain reproducible and reliable biosensors for  phenol detection. The method overcomes the problems of anchoring the enzyme and the produced device shows increased working and storage stability .

Staff: Lorenzo Avaldi, Paola Bolognesi, Mattea Carmen Castrovilli, Jacopo Chiarinelli, Annarita Casavola, Laura Carlini.    

The Eurofel Support Laboratory research team is working on a number of candidates for advanced sensors. In particular, the use of metal nanostructures as nanoantennas for the concentration of light allows a huge increase in the efficiency of standard spectroscopic sensors such as those based on Raman scattering (Surface Enhanced Raman Scattering - SERS) and infrared absorption (Surface Enhanced Infrared Absorption - SEIRA). The ultrafast spectro-scopic techniques available in the Eurofel Support Laboratory allow the research team to optimize such sensors by the use of novel materials such as nanoparticle decorated nanowires.

Staff: D. Catone, P. O’Keeffe, A. Paladini, F. Toschi, S. Turchini

High-temperature solar cells based on the exploitation of photon-enhanced thermionic emission (PETE) mechanism are under development at ISM.
The advantages of the PETE devices are connected to the capability to overcome the limitations of traditional solar cells (even the more advanced multiple junction ones) when operating in solar concentrating systems. The characteristics of PETE converters actually are: a better operation at increasing temperatures and a more efficient (>50%) use of the solar photons by exploiting, along with the direct photogeneration of charge carriers in a semiconducting absorber, all thermalization effects and IR absorption as useful heat sources for thermionic emission.
The cells developed by ISM include the black diamond technology as well as the innovative micrographitization of diamond, together with an advanced and original p-i-n structure.
More detailed information can be found at www.prometheus-energy.eu

Staff: A. Bellucci, M. Girolami, S. Orlando, R. Polini, V. Valentini, D.M. Trucchi

ISM is working on the preparation of organic semiconductors (π-conjugated oligothio-phenes) interacting with metal surfaces for optoelectronic applications. These compounds are p-type semiconductors able to self-organize at the interface with the electrode to maximize the transport of charge in the final device. This is the key process for the development of molecular electronics representing a valid low-cost alternative to the traditional one. The work goes beyond the use of commercial organic semiconductors (e.g. the terthiophene, 3T). Particularly interesting is the synthesis of compounds such as 1,3-ditienilbenzo[c]thio-phene (DTBT) and analogues, characterized by the presence of a condensed benzene ring to the oligothio-phene, which allows large variations in the optical properties of the system. Recent ISM activities consist in the careful study of these electrode-semiconductor interfaces by means of conventional optical spectroscopy and synchrotron radiation, assisted by ab initio simulations at the atomic scale of the interface. Preliminary results for the DTBT/Ag system show that the oligothiophene-metal interaction processes play an extremely important role in pushing towards the formation of an ordered interface rather than the degradation of the semiconductor onto the electrode.

Staff: Ambra Guarnaccio,  Giuseppe Mattioli,  Antonio Santagata