Bimetallic Pt–Au nanocatalysts decorated In2O3 nests composed of ultrathin nanosheets for Type 1 diabetes diagnosis

Abstract

Noninvasive diagnosis of diabetes, using a biomarker, is an urgent clinical requirement to find and remedy diabetes early. Recently, acetone, a kind of ideal probing molecule, was used to diagnose diabetes which concentration increased greatly in exhaled breath of a Type 1 diabetic patients. However, the selective detection of acetone is difficult at ppb level, especially at a high humidity. In this study, Pt0.3Au0.7–In2O3, decorated with bimetallic catalyst, showed enhanced sensing performance towards trace acetone gas at a low operating temperature of 160 °C. In addition, even at high humidity atmosphere (up to 95% RH), its response to 1.8 ppm acetone (Type 1 diabetes patients) is about 44% higher than that of 0.9 ppm (normal human), which can be clearly distinguished for the diagnosis of Type 1 diabetes in a non-invasive and more accurate way. The excellent sensing performance indicates that bimetallic Pt–Au decoration is an effect way to improve the acetone sensing ability of In2O3.