Project Description

Control of epidemic diseases such as obesity, diabetes, or cancer remains a major challenge despite a growing diagnostic toolset and abundance of preventative and therapeutic interventions. Breath analysis can play a major role by providing on-demand critical health data. The majority of breath contains volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at low concentrations. Most of the VOCs are not generated in the body (endogenous), but derive from food ingestion upon exposure to environmental pollutants (exogenous) or from metabolization of a drug. Increased concentration of VOCs leads to kidney disease, asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, bronchiectasis etc. In addition, many VOCs can be toxic or carcinogenic even at relatively low concentrations. Therefore, real-time, sensitive detection and identification of VOCs are critically important to human health and environmental safety. In this project we will synthesize hierarchical, porous and fluorescent carbon nanostructures which can be used as breath sensor for health monitoring. Optimum mesoporous and macroporous nanostructures will be prepared by different strategies like hydrothermal, pyrolysis, spin coating, electro spinning, doctor blading etc. Toxic gases will be rapidly adsorbed by the confined porous structures throughout the sensing layer. Characterization and determination of amount toxic gases and volatile compounds in exhaled breath will be implemented through simple change of fluorescence property from the nanostructures. To apply such sensors to breath analysis some of their characteristics (size, phase composition, structure) will be tailored during their synthesis and processing.