Optical-Chemical Sensing Technologies for Water Quality, Microplastics Detection and Environmental Monitoring
A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Chemical Sensors".
Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 October 2026 | Viewed by 205
Editors
Interests: synthesis and characterization of functionalized nanomaterials; layered double hydroxides; carbon-based nanomaterials; optical properties of innovative materials; optical sensors for the detection of heavy metals; hybrid organic/inorganic materials for optical emitters; nonlinear optical materials
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Interests: fluorescence; biophysics; rapid AST (antibiotic susceptibility testing); fast bacteriuria screening, POCT (point of care testing)
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Special Issue Information
Dear Colleagues,
Due to industrialization, urbanization, climate change, and wars, ecosystems worldwide are undergoing increasing pressure and damage. This is particularly true for aquatic environments, which cover the majority of the Earth's surface and represent the primary sources of drinking water. In addition to persistent and evolving contamination from chemical compounds, the pervasive spread of micro- and nanoplastics (MNPs), represents a significant, yet not completely assessed, environmental threat. While environmental monitoring through laboratory-based analytical methods is accurate and reliable, it requires bulky and expensive instrumentation, skilled personnel, and time-consuming sample preparation.
Alternatively, optical-chemical sensing technologies have emerged as powerful alternatives, offering innovative, rapid, simple, sensitive, and compact capabilities, suitable for in-situ monitoring. By exploiting spectroscopic, fluorescence, colorimetric, and plasmonic principles, with a virtually infinite number of sensing materials and nanomaterials, optical-chemical sensors have demonstrated remarkable potential for detecting a wide range of chemical and biological contaminants in different environmental matrices.
This Special Issue aims to highlight recent advances in optical-chemical sensing technologies for environmental monitoring, with particular emphasis on water quality assessment and microplastics detection. Contributions addressing both fundamental developments and practical implementations are welcome.
Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:
- Optical and spectroscopic chemical sensors for water quality monitoring
- Fluorescence, colorimetric, and plasmonic sensing platforms
- Novel optical sensor architectures
- Raman and hyperspectral techniques for microplastics detection
- Nanomaterials and functional materials for optical chemical sensing
- Fiber-optic and photonic sensors for environmental monitoring
- Portable and wearable environmental sensors
- Sensor integration with microfluidics and lab-on-chip technologies
- Integration of artificial intelligence and machine learning into optical sensing
Dr. Roberto Pizzoferrato
Dr. Eleonora Nicolai
Guest Editors
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Keywords
- optical chemical sensors
- in-situ water quality monitoring
- microplastics and nanoplastics (MNPs) detection
- environmental sensing
- surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS)
- fluorescence-based sensing
- Raman spectroscopy
- portable and wearable environmental sensors
- plasmonic sensing
- smart sensing and AI-driven data analysis
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