Diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA) is a life-threatening acute complication of diabetes in which ketone bodies accumulate in the blood. Breath acetone (a ketone) directly correlates with blood ketones, such that breath acetone monitoring could be used to improve safety in diabetes care. In this work, we report the design and fabrication of a chitosan/Pt/InP nanowire array based chemiresistive acetone sensor. By implementing chitosan as a surface functionalization layer and a Pt Schottky contact for efficient charge transfer processes and photovoltaic effect, self-powered, highly selective acetone sensing has been achieved. This sensor has an ultra-wide detection range from sub-ppb to >100,000 ppm levels at room temperature, incorporating the range from healthy individuals (300-800 ppb) to those at high-risk of DKA (> 75 ppm). The nanowire sensor has been further integrated into a handheld breath testing prototype, the Ketowhistle, which can successfully detect different ranges of acetone concentrations in simulated breath. The Ketowhistle demonstrates immediate potential for non-invasive ketone testing and monitoring for persons living with diabetes, in particular for DKA prevention.
@article{arxiv.2312.00510,
title = {Nanowire Array Breath Acetone Sensor for Diabetes Monitoring},
author = {Shiyu Wei and Zhe Li and Krishnan Murugappan and Ziyuan Li and Mykhaylo Lysevych and Kaushal Vora and Hark Hoe Tan and Chennupati Jagadish and Buddini I Karawdeniya and Christopher J Nolan and Antonio Tricoli and Lan Fu},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2312.00510},
year = {2023}
}