Synthesis of Tetracosane Functionalized Titanium Dioxide Sensor for Detecting Heptane as Pneumonia Breath Biomarker

Pneumonia is a significant worldwide health burden, resulting in more than 2.5 million deaths in 2017. The technology able to screen for pneumonia in an effortless, rapid, and at point-of-care manner is needed today in healthcare settings. Monitoring changes in volatile organic compounds in patient breath during sickness has been considered as one of the possible disease screening methods for many years. In this work, coated nanostructured titanium dioxide sensors are used for gaseous amperometric detection of heptane, a volatile organic compound associated with pneumonia. Tetracosane coated sensors showed an increase in current when exposed to heptane at a biased voltage of 1.5V under ambient room temperature. Different heptane concentrations are shown to be directly related to sensors’ response. As the concentrations of heptane in gaseous samples increased, the sensors’ response increased. Additionally, tetracosane sensors were shown to be reusable and have 30 days of shelf life at room temperature.