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Project

Aerosol-assisted deposition of metal-organic frameworks for gas-sensing devices

Some components in exhaled breath are associated with specific diseases. A facile way to determine the concentration of certain volatile biomarkers (VBM) would enable a practical, non-invasive way to diagnose a number of diseases, such as lung cancer, tuberculosis or COVID-19. Current methods either rely on expensive laboratory equipment (chromatographs and mass spectrometers) or are not sufficiently selective, failing to discriminate between different VBMs. There is a need for a reliable miniature sensor, capable to selectively detect a number of different VMBs in a breath sample. We propose to build an array of selective sensing elements (e-nose), based on thin films of Metal-Organic Frameworks (MOFs). MOFs are a class of porous solids with diverse adsorption properties and affinities, which makes them the ideal material platform to construct information-rich sensor arrays. However, the deposition of high-quality thin films of MOFs presents a challenge, which will be addressed in this project. We will develop a novel aerosol-assisted deposition method, use it to fabricate an e-nose, and test its performance.
Date:1 Jan 2022 →  31 Oct 2022
Keywords:MOF, aerosol-assisted depositon, gas sensor, breath analysis, volatile biomarkers
Disciplines:Chemometrics, Solid state and soft matter chemistry, Chemistry of clusters, colloids and nanomaterials, Sensors, biosensors and smart sensors not elsewhere classified, Physical chemistry of materials