Broccoli-shaped nano florets-based gastrointestinal diseases detection by copper oxide chitosan

Abstract

This report describes a simple and inexpensive room-temperature chemo-resistive CuO-Chitosan-based hydrogen sensor for detecting gastrointestinal diseases (GIDs). A clinical analysis shows that GID patients exhale more than 10–20 ppm of hydrogen compared to healthy people, which is considered a biomarker for the non-invasive diagnosis of GIDs. This allows for a portable, non-intrusive, effective, and fast-detecting sensor in treating GIDs. To our knowledge, no GIDs study has used chitosan for H2 sensing. The current study prepares CuO-Chi nanocomposites and tests their hydrogen sensitivity for GIDs detection. Different ratios of CuO: chitosan [CuO: Chi (A(1:2), B(1:1), C(1:0.5), D(1:0.25), E(1:0.125), and F(1:0.0625)]were synthesized using novel co-precipitation cum probe sonication technique. Compared to other CuO composites in the literature, our synthesized CuO: Chi-B (1:1) can detect as low as 10 ppm of hydrogen gas at room temperature, with a lower limit of detection (0.07 ppm) and a regression coefficient (R2) of 0.9566. The Contact angle explains the anti-wettability property with the increase in the hydrophilicity due to the presence of electronegative atoms like N in NH2 and O in the OH group. Field emission scanning electron microscopy reveals several single broccoli nano florets. Most importantly, the sensor's calculated Brunauer–Emmett–Teller surface area is 5.1565 m2/g with a pore volume of 0.02173cm2/gm and pore size of 16.897 nm. It has excellent sensitivity, response, recovery, reproducibility, stability, and selectivity. The reaction mechanism for sensor performance is elaborately discussed by the Grotthuss mechanism. The above studies suggest and show that CuO: Chi-B (1:1) is a new material for hydrogen sensors that can be used for the breath analysis to detect GIDs at 10 ppm.