In December 2022, DigiLab of Sapienza University, Rome, partnered with Società Cooperativa Culture to potentially develop a metaverse prototype, ArcheoVerso, dedicated to cultural heritage. ArcheoVerso aims to leverage digital universes to enhance both tangible and intangible Cultural Heritage, creating an ecosystem for best practices in immersive and augmented reality and economically sustainable metaverse solutions. With an estimated market value of $758.60 billion by 2026, a significant subscription rate for Meta, and hefty investments by leading companies in engaging systems, the metaverse presents an immense opportunity. Like social media, it serves as an excellent communication and enhancement tool for cultural heritage, driving unprecedented public involvement and economic impact. Platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram are merging digital and physical reality, reflecting philosopher Luciano Floridi s concept of onlife in a phygital world. This transformation is evident in recent cultural studies.

This study concerns the design of an electrochemical sensor functionalized with a polypyrrole-molecularly imprinted polymer (PPy- MIP) for bisphenol A (BPA) detection. Here, N, N'- methylene-bis-acrylamide was chosen as the chelating agent due to its accessible carbonyl and amine groups. Extraction of BPA templates from the vicinity of the PPy-polymeric matrix was optimized by electrochemistry and Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). The limit of detection of the designed sensor was of order of 1 nM and the sensitivity was equal to (9.66 ± 0.86) µA/M respectively. The dissociation constant K_d, which provides information on the affinity between the templates and the cavities, was estimated from a combined one-site binding - Hill model. K_d was of order of (2.05 ± 0.18) 10^-9 M.

This paper is about electrochemical investigations of nitrite (NO₂^-) and nitrate (NO₃^-) detection in water. Herein, a study based on functionalization of carbon screen-printed electrodes (CSPE) with chitosan and tetrasulfonated copper (II) phthalocyanine nanocomposite (Chit/Ts-CuPc). Cyclic voltammetry (CV) surveys were carried out with ferri/ferrocyanide probe and analytes for preliminary investigations to confirm the efficacity of the electrode’s functionalization. Differential pulse voltammetry (DPV) measurements then were performed for more precise and sensitive detection with different analytes concentrations. Further studies regarding pH optimization, electrodes kinetics and calibration curve will be performed to calculate the sensor’s figures of merits. As well as a real sample test is to be done to prove that the developed sensors are very promising for effective nitrite and nitrate detection.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) is a widely used method for the detection of molecules of environmental concern such as pesticides. One of the key factors to achieve high sensitivity in SERS is the high electromagnetic enhancement formed between plasmonic nanoparticles which is dependent on the wavelength used, shape, size, distance, and type of nanoparticles. In this regard, the scope of this paper is to investigate the enhancement factor achieved between adjacent silver or gold nanoparticles of different geometrical configurations by changing the shapes and sizes of the particles. Simulations based on finite element methods (FEM) were carried out to investigate the effect of different excitation laser wavelengths. The obtained results show the dependency of the enhancement factor, size, type of nanoparticles, excitation wavelength of the laser, dielectric properties of the surrounding medium and the type of substrate used.

Monitoring pesticide contaminants in diverse environmental systems has become a significant concern. A non-enzymatic electrochemical sensor for pirimicarb pesticide detection has been produced by functionalization of the screen-printed carbon electrodes (SPCE) with graphene oxide, ionic liquid, and gold nanoparticles (GO/IL/AuNps/SPCE). Cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy techniques were applied for the electrochemical characterization of the modified electrode in the presence of [Fe(CN)6]_3-/4- as a redox probe. The system showed an exponential response in a concentration range from 50 pM to 500 nM of pirimicarb with a sensitivity of 5.74 × 10 _-3 µA pM_-1 mm_-2 , and the Limit of detection (LOD) is 10.30 pM.