Abstract Breath ammonia is an essential biomarker for patients with many chronic illnesses, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD), chronic liver disease (CLD), urea cycle disorders (UCD), and hepatic encephalopathy. However, existing breath ammonia sensors fail to compensate for the impact of breath humidity and complex breathing motions associated with a human breath sample. Here, a multimodal breath sensing system is presented that integrates an ammonia sensor based on a thermally cleaved conjugated polymer, a humidity sensor based on reduced graphene oxide (rGO), and a breath dynamics sensor based on a 3D folded strain‐responsive mesostructure. The miniaturized construction and module‐based configuration offer flexible integration with a broad range of masks. Experimental results present the capabilities of the system in continuously detecting diagnostic ranges of breath ammonia under real, humid breath conditions with sufficient sensing accuracy and selectivity over 3 weeks. A machine‐learning algorithm based on K‐means clustering decodes multimodal signals collected from the breath sensor to differentiate between healthy and diseased breath concentrations of ammonia. The on‐body test highlights the operational simplicity and practicality of the system for noninvasively tracing ammonia biomarkers.
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Wireless Detection of Trace Ammonia: A Chronic Kidney Disease Biomarker
Elevated levels of ammonia in breath can be linked to medical complications such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) that disturb the urea balance in the body. However, early-stage CKD is usually asymptomatic and mass screening is hindered by high instrumentation and operation requirements, accessible and reliable detection methods for CKD biomarkers, such as trace ammonia in breath. Enabling methods would have significance in population screening for early-stage CKD patients. We herein report a method to effectively immobilize transition metal selectors in close proximity to single-walled carbon nanotube (SWCNT) surface using pentiptycene polymers containing metal-chelating backbone structures. The robust and modular nature of the pentiptycene metallopolymer/SWCNT complexes create a platform that accelerates sensor discovery and optimization. Using these methods, we have identified sensitive, selective, and robust copper-based chemiresistive ammonia sensors displaying low parts per billion detection limits. We have added these hybrid materials into the resonant radio frequency circuits of commercial near-field communication (NFC) tags to achieve robust wireless detection of ammonia at physiologically relevant levels. The integrated devices offer a non-invasive and cost-effective approach for early detection and monitoring of CKD.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2207299
- PAR ID:
- 10517321
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Chemical Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- ACS Nano
- Volume:
- 18
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1936-0851
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 364 to 372
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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