The research group of LAQV@REQUIMTE from the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Faculty of Sciences in the University of Porto, offers molecules and materials whose optical properties change in the presence of a specific analyte, through alterations in color or fluorescence. Once integrated into a portable device, the optical sensors can be used as warning and alert systems to detect in real time with high sensitivity the presence of various aquatic pollutants including organic chemicals, heavy metals and anions, among others.
Several classes of strong emitting dyes, including rhodamines, fluoresceins, naphthalimides and porphyrins, and chelating units, employing hydroxypyridinones, catechols, pyridyl and phenylcarboxylate units, have been synthetized to produce high performance molecules for an efficient implementation in optical sensors devices.
The Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry (LAQV@REQUIMTE) is the Portuguese Research Centre for Sustainable Chemistry. The organizational structure of LAQV enables the sharing several technical resources, coordinated by qualified staff that support the use of the facilities of the (i) Biological and chemical analysis Facilities; (ii) Computer Cluster; (iii) Magnetic Resonance; (iv) Mass spectrometry; (v) Electron Microscopy; (vi) X-ray diffraction; and the (vii) Pilot plant installation. The equipment´s for synthesis include 3 Microwave instruments from CEM Corporation and 1 Ohmic heating reactor in the frame of the Portuguese Patent, nº 105908, 2011-09-27.