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Fabrication of chemiresistive nanosensor using molecularly imprinted polymers for acetone detection in gaseous state

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Abstract

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) can originate from cellular metabolisms and are found in human exhalation, urine, feces, blood, sweat, saliva, and milk. Thus, changes in VOCs levels indicate changes in metabolic status of the cells and can be used for non-invasive diagnosis of metabolic diseases or even different cancers. The concentration of acetone as one of the VOCs, found in human exhalation, increases during certain diseases like diabetes, indicating its potential importance as a biomarker in diabetes diagnosis. Herein, a chemiresistive sensor was developed in which a composite of molecularly imprinted polymers (MIPs) was used as the sensing element for acetone gas detection. The adsorption of acetone gas on polymer cavities causes swelling of the polymer and decrease of the current (increase in resistance). The sensor was characterized in terms of linear range, sensitivity, detection limit and selectivity. The limit of detection (LOD) and the response time were 66 ppm and 3.7 ± 1 s, respectively. The target was successfully distinguished from other analytes when PCA-LDA analysis was used. This sensor can be part of an array of smart sensors detecting different VOCs related to a disease, followed by extraction of VOC fingerprint of the disease by using algorithms.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to acknowledge Prof. Parviz Norouzi from the Center of Excellence in Electrochemistry at Tehran University, for his helpful comments and providing the potentiostat device, Dr. Ahmad Moshaii and Dr. Sara Abbasian from the Faculty of Basic Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University for the useful discussions relating to this work, and Dr. Mohammad Javad Masroor from the Faculty of Biological Sciences at Tarbiat Modares University for performing the PCA-LDA analysis.

Funding

This work was partially funded by Tarbiat Modares University.

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Author notes

  1. Atieh Jahangiri-Manesh and Marziyeh Mousazadeh have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nanobiotechnology, Faculty of Biological Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box: 14115-154, Tehran, Iran

    Atieh Jahangiri-Manesh, Marziyeh Mousazadeh & Maryam Nikkhah

  2. Department of Sensor and Biosensor, Faculty of Interdisciplinary Sciences and Technologies, Tarbiat Modares University, P.O. Box: 14115-336, Tehran, Iran

    Maryam Nikkhah

Authors
  1. Atieh Jahangiri-Manesh
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  2. Marziyeh Mousazadeh
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  3. Maryam Nikkhah
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Contributions

AJM: methodology, investigation, writing—original draft, writing—review and editing. MM: methodology, investigation, writing—review and editing. MN: conceptualization, validation, resources, writing—review and editing, supervision. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Maryam Nikkhah.

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Jahangiri-Manesh, A., Mousazadeh, M. & Nikkhah, M. Fabrication of chemiresistive nanosensor using molecularly imprinted polymers for acetone detection in gaseous state. Iran Polym J 31, 883–891 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-022-01044-w

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13726-022-01044-w

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