Pospelov Alexander P, Belan Victor I, Harbuz Dmytro O, Vakula Volodymyr L, Kamarchuk Lyudmila V, Volkova Yuliya V, Kamarchuk Gennadii V
Department of Physical Chemistry, National Technical University "Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute", 2 Kyrpychov Str., Kharkiv, 61002, Ukraine.
Department of Spectroscopy of Molecular Systems and Nanostructured Materials, B. Verkin Institute for Low Temperature Physics and Engineering, 47 Nauky Ave., Kharkiv, 61103, Ukraine.
Beilstein J Nanotechnol. 2020 Oct 28;11:1631-1643. doi: 10.3762/bjnano.11.146. eCollection 2020.
Of all modern nanosensors using the principle of measuring variations in electric conductance, point-contact sensors stand out in having a number of original sensor properties not manifested by their analogues. The nontrivial nature of point-contact sensors is based on the unique properties of Yanson point contacts used as the sensing elements. The quantum properties of Yanson point contacts enable the solution of some of the problems that could not be solved using conventional sensors measuring conductance. In the present paper, we demonstrate this by showing the potential of quantum point-contact sensors to selectively detect components of a gas mixture in real time. To demonstrate the high efficiency of the proposed approach, we analyze the human breath, which is the most complex of the currently known natural gas mixtures with extremely low concentrations of its components. Point-contact sensors allow us to obtain a spectroscopic profile of the mixture. This profile contains information about the complete set of energy interactions occurring in the point contact/breath system when the breath constituents adsorb to and desorb from the surface of the point-contact conduction channel. With this information we can unambiguously characterize the analyzed system, since knowing the energy parameters is key to successfully identifying and modeling the physicochemical properties of various quantum objects. Using the point-contact spectroscopic profile of a complex gas mixture it is possible to get a functional dependence of the concentration of particular breath components on the amplitude of the sensor output signal. To demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed approach, we analyze the point-contact profiles from the breath of several patients and compare them with the concentrations of serotonin and cortisol in the body of each patient. The obtained results demonstrate that the proposed methodology allows one to get an effective calibration function for a non-invasive analysis of the level of serotonin and cortisol in the human body using the point-contact breath test. The present study indicates some necessary prerequisites for the design of fast detection methods using differential sensor analysis in real time, which can be implemented in various areas of science and technology, among which medicine is one of the most important.
在所有利用测量电导变化原理的现代纳米传感器中，点接触传感器因其具有许多独特的传感器特性而脱颖而出，这些特性是其同类产品所不具备的。点接触传感器的独特性质基于用作传感元件的扬森点接触的独特特性。扬森点接触的量子特性使得一些使用传统电导测量传感器无法解决的问题得以解决。在本文中，我们通过展示量子点接触传感器实时选择性检测混合气体成分的潜力来证明这一点。为了证明所提出方法的高效性，我们分析了人类呼出的气体，它是目前已知的最复杂的天然气体混合物，其成分浓度极低。点接触传感器使我们能够获得该混合物的光谱图。该光谱图包含了呼吸成分在点接触传导通道表面吸附和解吸时，点接触/呼吸系统中发生的全套能量相互作用的信息。有了这些信息，我们就能明确地表征被分析系统，因为了解能量参数是成功识别和模拟各种量子物体物理化学性质的关键。利用复杂气体混合物的点接触光谱图，可以得到特定呼吸成分浓度与传感器输出信号幅度之间的函数关系。为了证明所提出方法的可行性，我们分析了几位患者呼出气体的点接触光谱图，并将其与每位患者体内血清素和皮质醇的浓度进行比较。所得结果表明，所提出的方法能够获得一个有效的校准函数，用于通过点接触呼气测试对人体血清素和皮质醇水平进行无创分析。本研究指出了实时使用差分传感器分析设计快速检测方法的一些必要前提条件，这些方法可应用于科学技术的各个领域，其中医学是最重要的领域之一。
