Highly sensitive ammonia sensor with organic vertical nanojunctions for noninvasive detection of hepatic injury

Anal Chem. 2013 Mar 19;85(6):3110-7. doi: 10.1021/ac303100k. Epub 2013 Mar 5.

Abstract

We successfully demonstrate the first solid-state sensor to have reliable responses to breath ammonia of rat. For thioacetamide (TAA)-induced hepatopathy rats, we observe that the proposed sensor can detect liver that undergoes acute-moderate hepatopathy with a p-value less than 0.05. The proposed sensor is an organic diode with vertical nanojunctions produced by using low-cost colloidal lithography. Its simple structure and low production cost facilitates the development of point-of-care technology. We also anticipate that the study is a starting point for investigating sophisticated breath-ammonia-related disease models.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Ammonia / chemistry*
  • Animals
  • Breath Tests / methods
  • Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / diagnosis*
  • Chemical and Drug Induced Liver Injury / metabolism
  • Female
  • Nanostructures*
  • Rats
  • Rats, Sprague-Dawley
  • Thioacetamide / toxicity

Substances

  • Thioacetamide
  • Ammonia