Bodegas Viñas Serranas

Start date: 03/09/2024

End date: 02/03/2028

Cristina García Cabezón
Inorganic Chemistry Full Professor

Start date: 31/08/2016

End date: 31/12/2018

Antioxidants present in foods have an important beneficial effect on health, as well as contributing to the organoleptic characteristics of foods and their preservation. Although there are several methods for detecting the presence of antioxidants and analysing the antioxidant capacity of foods, these techniques require long analysis times and are therefore not suitable for routine tests at industrial level. This project applies new technologies developed in the field of Materials and Nanoscience to the design of new sensors capable of efficiently analysing the presence of antioxidants in food.

Specifically, this project will develop new cellular polymers with nanometric pore size (nanocellular polymers), with a high surface to volume ratio, which will act as a support for sensitive materials such as metallic nanoparticles or phthalocyanines. These new materials will be fabricated using environmentally clean technologies and have the potential to substantially improve the sensing capability of current solutions.

These devices will be used as electrochemical impedance and/or voltammetric sensors and will be able to detect antioxidants typically present in beverages and foods such as wines, with detection limits in the 10^-3-10^-5 M range. The sensors will be disposable and inexpensive as demanded by the food industry.

Start date: 11/11/2018

End date: 15/11/2021

Although various methods exist to analyse food, these techniques require long analysis times and are therefore not suitable for routine testing at an industrial level. With the development of Industry 4.0, the food sector requires the development of new sensors capable of analysing the composition of its products.

This project applies new technologies developed in the field of Materials and Nanoscience to the design of new tubular cellular polymeric sensors with great potential in the agri-food sector.

In particular, new tubular polymers will be developed for the first time, with a high surface to volume ratio, which will act as a support for sensitive materials such as metallic nanoparticles, carbon nanofibres or phthalocyanines. These new porous materials will be obtained by combining two processes, starting with the fabrication of polymeric fibres using electrospinning, a simple, versatile technique that allows the preparation of 1-dimensional micro- and nanomaterials (fibres). Subsequently, the surface area/volume ratio of these fibres, and thus their potential response as sensors, will be drastically increased by generating internal porosity in the fibres. From the initial solid fibres, tubular polymers (hollow fibres) will be obtained for the first time using the gas dissolution foaming technique, a simple and versatile method that stands out for its environmental sustainability, the absence of hazardous chemicals and the absence of waste generation. The characteristics of this new generation of sensitive materials, with controlled diameters and porosities, have the potential to substantially improve the detection capability of current solutions. In addition, the possibility to build multifunctional structures by modifying fibres with nanomaterials may produce additional benefits through synergistic effects.

These highly porous materials/nanomaterials will be used to build devices to be used as voltammetric and/or electrochemical impedance sensors and will be used to detect compounds belonging to three families of interest in the food industry: polyphenols (such as catechol or vanillic acid), sugars (such as glucose and lactose) or organic acids (such as lactic and malic), with detection limits in the range of at least 10^-5 M. Finally, the performance of the sensors will be evaluated on real wine and milk samples. The sensors will be disposable and inexpensive, as demanded by the food industry.

Start date: 01/01/2019

End date: 31/12/2021

Mª Luz Rodríguez Méndez
Full professor in Inorganic Chemistry

Cristina García Cabezón
Associate professor in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering

Number of participating researchers: 5

Nowadays a variety of methods are available to analyze foods at the laboratory level. However, these techniques are long and are not suitable for on-line or routine analysis. With the irruption of the Industry 4.0 it has become clear that the food industry needs to develop chemical sensors able to analyze the composition of their products.  In this project, electrochemical sensors (voltammetric, potentiometric and impedimetric) specifically dedicated to the analysis of milks will be developed. The use of nanomaterials and bionanomaterials as sensitive materials will allow obtaining innovative sensors with improved capabilities. The best nanosensors will be combined in a multisensory configuration to obtain a nanoelectronic tongue (nanoe-tongue) that will be used  to analyze various categories of milks (raw milk, and milks with different fat content, lactose content, adulterations and spoilage) provided by milk producers. Finally, mathematical models will be established between the signals obtained by the electronic tongue and chemical parameters measured using traditional chemical methods. These mathematical models will be used to train the electronic tongue that, in this way, will be able to assess the values of several parameters simultaneously. Finally, we will envisage the development of portable nanosensors and to implement a portable prototype of the nanoe-tongue in order to analyze the quality of milk on line. The results of the project will lay a foundation for a cost-effective, real-time, in situ, easy-to-use method for milk quality control that could be applied within and outside the premises of a control quality laboratory.

Start date: 01/01/2022

End date: 31/12/2025

Mª Luz Rodríguez Méndez
Full professor in Inorganic Chemistry

Cristina García Cabezón
Associate professor in Materials Science and Metallurgical Engineering

Number of participating researchers: 5

The aim of this interdisciplinary project, involving experts in sensors, materials and milk, is to use nanoscience and nanotechnology to implement a potentiometric electronic language dedicated to milk analysis. The novelty of the project lies in this electronic language (nano-Etongue), made up of nanosensors and/or nanobiosensors connected to pattern recognition software using artificial intelligence methods. Different strategies will be used to improve the performance of the system: new nanomaterials to improve sensitivity, new technologies such as the MIP technique to increase selectivity and the use of enzymes to improve specificity towards significant compounds present in dairy products. The project will start with the development of these methods for the preparation of these new sensors and the evaluation of their response to chemical markers of milk quality. The best performing sensors will then be selected and combined to form a system. The validation of the system will be carried out with samples of several categories of milks (UPH milk, raw milk and milks with preservatives, adulterants and antibiotic residues) that will be provided by Calidad Pascual. In parallel, standard physico-chemical measurements and other more specific measurements by FTIR, NIR, RAMAN will be carried out. Mathematical models will be established between the signals obtained by the electronic tongue and the chemical parameters, linking them to a new chemometric treatment by means of artificial intelligence techniques will allow strategies to be established to select the best sensors, implement the work methodology and finally validate the electronic measurement system. As a result of the project, an attempt will be made to develop a portable prototype of an electronic tongue to analyse the quality of milk “in-situ” on farms and at Calidad Pascual’s facilities. The results of the project will provide the basis for a cost-effective, real-time, in-situ, easy-to-use milk quality control method that could be applied inside and outside a quality control laboratory facility.

Funding entity:

FONDOS FEDER, JUNTA DE CASTILLA Y LEÓN -CONSEJERÍA DE EDUCACIÓN