SBIR Phase I: Wearable Nanoelectronic Vapor Sensors for Transdermal Alcohol Monitoring

该项目更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过向普通人群提供可穿戴酒精监测设备，这将导致更好地了解酒精消费，并最终增强健康，延长寿命，减少疾病和残疾的负担。不谨慎的饮酒会导致健康和社会问题，这些问题要么是由于持续饮酒而随着时间的推移而显现出来的（例如，心脏病、癌症、肝病、糖尿病等），或者是急性中毒和/或决策受损的短期影响（例如，机动车碰撞、暴力等）。从2006年到2010年，过度饮酒导致美国每年约88，000人死亡，仅2006年一年就造成约2240亿美元的经济损失。鉴于上述社会影响，所提出的基于石墨烯的可穿戴酒精监测设备解决了实施健康方法以减少过度饮酒导致的生命损失和巨大经济成本的迫切需要。事实上，到2018年，可穿戴生物传感器的市场规模估计将达到190亿美元，这凸显了对个性化医疗保健日益增长的需求，也指出了自我监测酒精传感器的潜在商业机会。这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目解决了对小型，轻型，不显眼，酒精传感器，用于实时自我监测酒精消耗。过量饮酒是一种危害健康的行为，也是美国第四大可预防的死亡原因。大多数改善安全饮酒的策略都依赖于获得有关酒精消费的准确和及时的信息;这些信息包括自我报告饮酒次数和时间，呼吸测醉器，实验室血液分析和可穿戴设备。与其他自我监测方法相比，可穿戴酒精监测器在准确性和可行性方面具有明显的优势。然而，目前用于酒精监测的可穿戴设备体积庞大、使用不便、突兀，并且不能提供关于醉酒水平的一致的实时数据。在第一阶段SBIR研究中，将开发一种基于石墨烯的纳米电子可穿戴传感器，用于使用通过皮肤蒸发的蒸汽进行实时酒精监测。石墨烯传感器将在招募的成年志愿者身上进行测试，并以标准呼吸测醉器读数为基准。石墨烯传感器和呼气测醉器之间的良好相关性将证实我们提出的项目的技术和商业可行性，从而导致第二阶段SBIR提案。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this project is through providing a wearable alcohol monitoring device to the general population which will lead to a better awareness about alcohol consumption, and ultimately enhance health, lengthen life, and reduce burden of illness and disability. Incautious alcohol use causes health and social problems that either manifest over time due to sustained drinking (e.g., heart disease, cancer, liver disease, diabetes, etc.), or are short term effects of acute intoxication and/or impaired decision-making (e.g., motor vehicle crashes, violence, etc.). Excessive alcohol use led to approximately 88,000 deaths per year in the United States from 2006-2010 and in 2006 alone cost the economy approximately $224 billion. In light of the above social impact, the proposed graphene based wearable alcohol monitoring device addresses the urgent need to implement health approaches to reduce the loss of life and the huge economic costs that result from excessive drinking. In fact, the growing need for personalized health-care is highlighted by the estimated market size of $19 billion for wearable biosensors by 2018, pointing towards the potential commercial opportunity for self-monitoring alcohol sensors as well.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the unmet need for a small, light, unobtrusive, convenient-to-use alcohol sensor for real-time self-monitoring of alcohol consumption. Excessive alcohol consumption is a health risk behavior and the fourth leading preventable cause of death in the United States. Most strategies to improve safe drinking rely on obtaining accurate and timely information about alcohol consumption; these include self-report of number and timing of drinks, breathalyzers, blood analysis by lab, and wearable devices. Wearable alcohol monitors have clear advantages in terms of accuracy and feasibility compared to other methods for self-monitoring. However, current wearable devices for alcohol monitoring are bulky, inconvenient to use, obtrusive, and do not provide consistent, real-time data on the level of intoxication. In this Phase I SBIR study, a graphene based nanoelectronic wearable sensor will be developed for real-time alcohol monitoring using the vapors transpiring through the skin. The graphene sensors will be tested on recruited adult volunteers and benchmarked with standard breathalyzer readings. Good correlation between the graphene sensor and a breathalyzer will confirm the technical and commercial feasibility of our proposed project leading to a Phase II SBIR proposal.