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Volatile organic compound sensing in breath using conducting polymer coated chemi-resistive filter paper sensors

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Abstract

In this work, a disposable sensor array was designed based on the chemi-resistive behavior of the conducting polymers to detect three volatile organic compounds (VOCs), i.e., acetone, ethanol, and methanol in air and breath. Four disposable resistive sensors were designed by coating polypyrrole and polyaniline (in their doped and de-doped forms) on filter paper substrates and tested against VOCs in air. Change in conductivity of the polymer resulting from exposure to various VOC concentration was measured as percentage resistance change using a standard multimeter. The lowest concentration detected for acetone, ethanol, and methanol vapors was 400 ppb, 150 ppb, and 300 ppb, respectively within 2 min. These VOC-responsive sensors, housed in an indigenous inert chamber, showed good stability, repeatability, and reversibility while sensing, thus making it suitable for environmental pollutant detection at room temperature. Furthermore, the non-specific nature of these easy to fabricate sensors towards all VOCs is considered favorable and upon classifying with principal component analysis (PCA), the gases were qualitatively distinguished in separate clusters. These developed sensors were also tested and analyzed using VOC spiked real breath samples as proof of concept.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to acknowledge Sophisticated Analytical Instrument Facility (SAIF), IIT Bombay and Central Facility, IIT Bombay for providing research facilities.

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Author notes

  1. Debasmita Mondal and Aswathy M. Nair have contributed equally to this work and share equal authorship.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electrical and Electronics Engineering, Birla Institute of Technology Mesra, Ranchi, Jharkhand, 835215, India

    Debasmita Mondal

  2. Department of Biosciences and Bioengineering, IIT Bombay, Powai, Mumbai, 400076, India

    Debasmita Mondal, Aswathy M. Nair & Soumyo Mukherji

Authors
  1. Debasmita Mondal
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  2. Aswathy M. Nair
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  3. Soumyo Mukherji
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Contributions

The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: Study conception and design: Debasmita Mondal, Aswathy M. Nair, Soumyo Mukherji; Data collection: Debasmita Mondal, Aswathy M. Nair; Analysis and interpretation of results: Debasmita Mondal, Aswathy M. Nair, Soumyo Mukherji; Draft manuscript preparation: Debasmita Mondal, Aswathy M. Nair, Soumyo Mukherji. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Debasmita Mondal.

Ethics declarations

Ethics approval

This is not a clinical study. It is an initial test for prototyping a sensor. As a result, breath was collected without any other associated data from the experimenters themselves. Since there were no biosafety related issues or confidentiality related issues, clearance was not required. At a later date, when large scale data collection will be done, along with retaining anonymized subject data, ethical clearance will be obtained.

Informed consent

The current study is not clinical and hence, no consent is required.

Competing interests

Soumyo Mukherji is an Associate Editor of MBEC journal. The authors do not have any financial interest to declare.

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Mondal, D., Nair, A.M. & Mukherji, S. Volatile organic compound sensing in breath using conducting polymer coated chemi-resistive filter paper sensors. Med Biol Eng Comput 61, 2001–2011 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-023-02861-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-023-02861-8

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