VOC refers to a group of chemicals that evaporate and are commonly found in products and environments.
New Delhi: Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur experts have developed a first-ever ‘Make in India’ human breath sensor based on nano silicon and metal oxides. The device functions to measure alcohol levels in the breath to spot cases of drunk driving. However, with a few changes in the sensing layers and by using sensors like the electronic or artificial nose, the device can be useful for differentiating between COPD, cardiac arrest, asthma, diabetic ketoacidosis, and sleep apnoea.
This comes after there was a dire need for the development of an affordable, quick, and non-invasive technique to monitor the environment and human health and the effect of pollution on it. The existing sensors are based on metal oxide technology or fuel cell-based tech. This motivated researchers to come up with a breath VOC sensor that would cost a lot less than the existing device and can monitor breath with relatively lower levels of graphene oxide.
The research was published in IEEE Sensors Letters by Mr. Nikhil Vadera, PhD student, IDRP- Smart Healthcare, IIT Jodhpur, and Dr. Saakshi Dhanekar, Associate Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Jodhpur. A similar kind of electronic nose can be used for VOC monitoring in the environment and the detection of breath biomarkers for diseases by monitoring machine learning algorithms.
VOC refers to a group of chemicals that evaporate and are commonly found in products and environments. The current breath analysers are either too bulky or require long preparation timings and heaters. This leads to excess use of energy and time. But the updated device can operate at room temperature and is a plug-and-play. The technology that the device is based on is an electronic nose with a heterostructure that works at room temperature. The sensors react with alcohol in the sample and show a change in resistance.
The change is said to be proportional to the alcohol concentration in the sample. Data collected from the sensor array is also processed with machine learning algorithms and works well for the identification of patterns from different breathing components and they segregate alcohol from the VOC. The primary function is to measure alcohol content in the breath.
