Design and Development of a Breath Acetone MOS Sensor for Ketogenic Diets Control

The design of a handy and noninvasive measurement of acetone in the human breath, which is useful for ketosis monitoring and control, by means of MOS sensors is reported. For this aim, highly sensitive resistive sensors in thick film configuration, fabricated depositing sensing layers of In
₂
O
₃
and Pt-In
₂
O
₃
nanopowders by screen-printing, have been developed. The devices were calibrated using standard gases in the laboratory, showing high sensitivity and a linear response in the range of acetone concentration investigated (1-100 ppm). The results obtained indicate that MOS sensors based on Pt-In
₂
O
₃
nanopowders are promising as fast and quantifiable means of determining acetone in the breath, posing the advantages of real time measurements and low costs devices for the control of ketogenic diets.