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3D-printed smartphone-based device for fluorimetric diagnosis of ketosis by acetone-responsive dye marker and red emissive carbon dots

Microchimica Acta volume 188, Article number: 306 (2021) Cite this article

Abstract

A portable smartphone device is reported that uses 3D printing technology for the primary diagnosis of diseases by detecting acetone. The key part of the device consists of red carbon dots (RCDs), which are used as internal standards, and a sensing reagent (3-N,N-(diacethydrazide)-9-ethylcarbazole (2-HCA)) for acetone. With an excitation wavelength of 360 nm, the emission wavelengths of 2-HCA and RCDs are 443 nm and 619 nm, respectively. 2-HCA effectively captures acetone to form a nonfluorescent acylhydrazone via a condensation reaction occurring in aqueous solution, resulting in obvious color changes from blue-violet to dark red. The detection limit for acetone is 2.62 μM (~ 0.24 ppm). This is far lower than the ketone content in normal human blood (≤ 0.50 mM) and the acetone content in human respiratory gas (≤ 1.80 ppm). The device has good recovery rates for acetone detection in blood and exhaled breath, which are 90.56–109.98% (RSD ≤ 5.48) and 92.80–108.00% (RSD ≤ 5.07), respectively. The method designed here provides a reliable way to provide health warnings by visually detecting markers of ketosis/diabetes in blood or exhaled breath.

Graphical abstract

The portable smart phone device visually detects ketosis/diabetes markers in the blood or exhaled breath through the nucleophilic addition reaction, which effectively captures acetone to form nonfluorescent acyl groups. This will be a reliable tool to warn human health.

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Acknowledgements

This work is financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (21671052, 21806168), Key Research and Development Program of Anhui Province (202004d07020013, 1804a07020103), Natural Science Foundation of Anhui Province (2008085QB69), and Scientific Research Foundation for High-Level Talents of West Anhui University (WGKQ2021001). The numerical calculations in this paper were performed on the Scientific Research Cloud Platform in the School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University.

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Author notes

  1. Fan Yang and Linlin Yang contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Solid State Physics, Hefei Institutes of Physical Science, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, China

    Fan Yang, Linlin Yang, Longchang Xu, Wei Guo, Lei Pan, Chuanglin Zhang, Shihao Xu, Liang Yang & Changlong Jiang

  2. Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Fan Yang, Wei Guo & Lei Pan

  3. Key Laboratory of Biomimetic Sensor and Detecting Technology of Anhui Province, School of Materials and Chemical Engineering, West Anhui University, Lu’an, 237012, Anhui, China

    Linlin Yang

  4. State Key Laboratory of Transducer Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei, 230031, Anhui, China

    Shihao Xu, Liang Yang & Changlong Jiang

  5. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Liaocheng University, Liaocheng, 252059, Shandong, China

    Ningning Zhang

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  1. Fan Yang
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ΙΙYang F. and Yang L.L. contributed equally to this paper. The manuscript was written with contributions from all authors. All authors have given approval to the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Liang Yang or Changlong Jiang.

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Yang, F., Yang, L., Xu, L. et al. 3D-printed smartphone-based device for fluorimetric diagnosis of ketosis by acetone-responsive dye marker and red emissive carbon dots. Microchim Acta 188, 306 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04965-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00604-021-04965-0

Keywords

  • Smartphone-based device
  • Real-time monitoring
  • Ratiometric fluorescence
  • Subhealth recognition
  • Acetone detection
  • Health warning