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Carbon nanotube sensors for exhaled breath components

Oleksandr Kuzmych, Brett L Allen and Alexander Star

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A new method for the detection of nitric oxide (NO) in gas phase is based on a combination of acidic gas scrubbing, oxidation, and conductivity measurements using a chemically functionalized carbon nanotube field-effect transistor (NTFET) device. Gas mixtures containing NO are passed through an Ascarite scrubber and then an oxidizing material (CrO3) which converts NO into NO2. The latter is delivered to the surface of the NTFET sensor coated with poly(ethylene imine) (PEI) polymer. Interaction of the gas with a chemically functionalized NTFET results in a conductivity change that is proportional to the NO gas concentration. The wide range of NO gas concentrations from about 2 ppb up to 5 ppm was tested. A detection limit of NO has been measured as 5 ppb with a signal-to-noise ratio (S/N = 3) in inert atmosphere at a fixed relative humidity (RH =  30%). Cross-sensitivity to CO2 and O2 was measured in the gas mixture, modeling human breath conditions. Compared to using chemiluminescence, a state-of-the-art technique for monitoring NO concentrations, this method offers the advantages of low cost, compact size and simplicity of set-up for monitoring NO concentrations while overcoming the limitations of cross-contaminants, possibly creating a foundation for enabling self-diagnostics and home care for asthma sufferers.


PACS

87.85.Qr Nanotechnologies-design

47.63.Ec Pulmonary fluid mechanics

85.30.Tv Field effect devices

87.19.U- Hemodynamics

82.80.-d Chemical analysis and related physical methods of analysis

87.80.-y Biophysical techniques (research methods)

Subjects

Fluid dynamics

Electronics and devices

Instrumentation and measurement

Semiconductors

Medical physics

Biological physics

Chemical physics and physical chemistry

Dates

Issue 37 (19 September 2007)

Received 30 May 2007, in final form 26 June 2007

Published 22 August 2007



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