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Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor

Methanol poisoning causes blindness, organ failure or even death when recognized too late. Currently, there is no methanol detector for quick diagnosis by breath analysis or for screening of laced beverages. Typically, chemical sensors cannot distinguish methanol from the much higher ethanol backgro...

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Autores principales: van den Broek, J., Abegg, S., Pratsinis, S. E., Güntner, A. T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Nature Publishing Group UK 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6746816/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31527675
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12223-4
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author van den Broek, J.
Abegg, S.
Pratsinis, S. E.
Güntner, A. T.
author_facet van den Broek, J.
Abegg, S.
Pratsinis, S. E.
Güntner, A. T.
author_sort van den Broek, J.
collection PubMed
description Methanol poisoning causes blindness, organ failure or even death when recognized too late. Currently, there is no methanol detector for quick diagnosis by breath analysis or for screening of laced beverages. Typically, chemical sensors cannot distinguish methanol from the much higher ethanol background. Here, we present an inexpensive and handheld sensor for highly selective methanol detection. It consists of a separation column (Tenax) separating methanol from interferants like ethanol, acetone or hydrogen, as in gas chromatography, and a chemoresistive gas sensor (Pd-doped SnO(2) nanoparticles) to quantify the methanol concentration. This way, methanol is measured within 2 min from 1 to 1000 ppm without interference of much higher ethanol levels (up to 62,000 ppm). As a proof-of-concept, we reliably measure methanol concentrations in spiked breath samples and liquor. This could enable the realization of highly selective sensors in emerging applications such as breath analysis or air quality monitoring.
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spelling pubmed-67468162019-09-18 Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor van den Broek, J. Abegg, S. Pratsinis, S. E. Güntner, A. T. Nat Commun Article Methanol poisoning causes blindness, organ failure or even death when recognized too late. Currently, there is no methanol detector for quick diagnosis by breath analysis or for screening of laced beverages. Typically, chemical sensors cannot distinguish methanol from the much higher ethanol background. Here, we present an inexpensive and handheld sensor for highly selective methanol detection. It consists of a separation column (Tenax) separating methanol from interferants like ethanol, acetone or hydrogen, as in gas chromatography, and a chemoresistive gas sensor (Pd-doped SnO(2) nanoparticles) to quantify the methanol concentration. This way, methanol is measured within 2 min from 1 to 1000 ppm without interference of much higher ethanol levels (up to 62,000 ppm). As a proof-of-concept, we reliably measure methanol concentrations in spiked breath samples and liquor. This could enable the realization of highly selective sensors in emerging applications such as breath analysis or air quality monitoring. Nature Publishing Group UK 2019-09-16 /pmc/articles/PMC6746816/ /pubmed/31527675 http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12223-4 Text en © The Author(s) 2019 Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
spellingShingle Article
van den Broek, J.
Abegg, S.
Pratsinis, S. E.
Güntner, A. T.
Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title_full Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title_fullStr Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title_full_unstemmed Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title_short Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
title_sort highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6746816/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31527675
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-12223-4
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