Response of the ZnO/Fe2O3 sensors to the breath from individuals with combinations of diabetes at room temperature.

Various studies have shown that human breath analysis can detect presence of different diseases in patients, such as cancer, diabetes, renal failure, etc. The level of different volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath can be different depending upon the disease that the patient is suffering from. The location of affected organs in the human body (e.g. lungs, stomach, pancreas, etc.) can also be identified on the basis of breath gas analysis. This encourages the development of advanced sensors that can detect human breath gases that are present in very low concentrations at low pressures. In this study, two sensors were fabricated using pure Fe2O3 powder and ZnO/Fe2O3 mixed powder. The sensors were screen printed on the top of glass substrates with interdigitated gold electrodes. The sensors were used to detect the breath of two diabetes patients two times a day (before and after breakfast). At the same time glucose blood tests for the two people were done. The response of the sensors was increased when exposed to breath compared with response to air. The results were compared by the glucose blood tests which examined at the same time as the breath tests. It was observed that responses of the sensors increased or decreased with increasing or decreasing the level of the glucose in the blood. Direct proportional relationship between the responses of the breath sensors and glucose level in the blood were observed. Initial results show that the sensors developed in this study can be used to analyse human breath and may give an indicator to the presence of the level of glucose. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]