Au nanoparticles decorated polyaniline nanofiber sensor for detecting volatile sulfur compounds in expired breath

Abstract

A chemiresistive sensor based on polyaniline (PANI) nanofibers decorated with highly dispersed gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) is developed to detect the volatile sulfur compounds (VSCs) of human expired breath. The PANI nanofibers with a characteristic of horizontal orientation on the insulating gap area of an interdigitated electrode are prepared by a temple-free electrochemical polymerization. The formation of the fine AuNPs on the PANI nanofibers is realized by the redox reaction between HAuCl 4 and PANI in the form of emeraldine. The PANI/AuNPs sensors exhibit good sensing responses to H 2S and CH 3SH gases. The sensing ability of the fabricated electrodes on VSCs contained in human breath is confirmed by their response upon exposure to the expired breath of a healthy volunteer after ingesting raw garlic. The developed nanosensors, together with a multichannel sensing system, are expected to be used in breath analysis and disease diagnose related to malodor biomarker gases.