Two-Dimensional Ti3C2 MXene-Based Novel Nanocomposites for Breath Sensors for Early Detection of Diabetes Mellitus

Anna Rudie; Anna Marie Schornack; Qiang Wu; Qifeng Zhang; Danling Wang

doi:10.3390/bios12050332

Two-Dimensional Ti₃C₂ MXene-Based Novel Nanocomposites for Breath Sensors for Early Detection of Diabetes Mellitus

Biosensors (Basel). 2022 May 13;12(5):332. doi: 10.3390/bios12050332.

Authors

Anna Rudie¹, Anna Marie Schornack², Qiang Wu³, Qifeng Zhang^{1

4}, Danling Wang^{1

4}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA.
² Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN 55902, USA.
³ Department of Mathematics, Physics, and Electrical Engineering, Northumbria University, Newcastle NE1 8ST, UK.
⁴ Materials and Nanotechnology Program, North Dakota State University, Fargo, ND 58102, USA.

Abstract

The rates of diabetes throughout the world are rising rapidly, impacting nearly every country. New research is focused on better ways to monitor and treat this disease. Breath acetone levels have been defined as a biomarker for diabetes. The development of a method to monitor and diagnose diabetes utilizing breath acetone levels would provide a fast, easy, and non-invasive treatment option. An ideal material for point-of-care diabetes management would need to have a high response to acetone, high acetone selectivity, low interference from humidity, and be able to operate at room temperature. Chemiresistive gas sensors are a promising method for sensing breath acetone due to their simple fabrication and easy operation. Certain semiconductor materials in chemiresistive sensors can react to acetone in the air and produce changes in resistance that can be correlated with acetone levels. While these materials have been developed and show strong responses to acetone with good selectivity, most of them must operate at high temperatures (compared to RT), causing high power consumption, unstable device operation, and complex device design. In this paper, we systematically studied a series of 2-dimensional MXene-based nanocomposites as the sensing materials in chemiresistive sensors to detect 2.86 ppm of acetone at room temperature. Most of them showed great sensitivity and selectivity for acetone. In particular, the 1D/2D CrWO/Ti₃C₂ nanocomposite showed the best sensing response to acetone: nine times higher sensitivity than 1D KWO nanowires. To determine the sensing selectivity, a CrWO/Ti₃C₂ nanocomposite-based sensor was exposed to various common vapors in human breath. The result revealed that it has excellent selectivity for acetone, and far lower responses to other vapors. All these preliminary results indicate that this material is a promising candidate for the creation of a point-of-care diabetes management device.

Keywords: 1D nanostructured semiconductors; 2D Ti3C2 MXene; breath acetone; chemiresistive sensor; diabetes.

MeSH terms

Acetone
Breath Tests
Diabetes Mellitus* / diagnosis
Gases
Humans
Nanocomposites*
Titanium

Substances

Gases
Acetone
Titanium

Grants and funding

This work is supported in part by the Offerdahl Seed Grant, NDSU Centennial Endowment Award, FAR0029296; and ND NASA EPSCoR research grant, FAR0030154, ND EPSCoR grant, FAR0030452, NSF EPSCoR RII Track-1, OIA 1946202, Royal Society International Exchanges 2021 Round 2 (UK), IES\R2\212135.