Eager: Novel MXene nanocomposites based 3D printed flexible sensors for noninvasive health monitoring

现代医学和健康管理迫切需要新的非侵入性技术来快速检测疾病和早期筛查。开发低成本、便携和可靠的设备来分析与疾病相关的挥发性有机化合物(VOCs)，例如糖尿病的生物标志物丙酮，已经成为医学诊断、治疗控制和健康管理领域的一个具有吸引力和竞争力的前沿。先进材料，特别是纳米材料合成的巨大进步，以及新制造技术的发明，为设计和制造能够进行非侵入性诊断、廉价和便携的先进医疗设备提供了机会，因此适合在家庭或临床使用。二维过渡金属碳化物/氮化物(MXene)是一类新兴的纳米材料，由于其具有多层、多孔结构、高比表面积比、丰富且可调的表面化学以及良好的导电性，在提高电子器件性能方面具有很大的潜力。3D打印是一种多功能技术，它为定制3D建筑的快速直接原型提供了一种简单、少材料浪费的策略。传感材料、MXene纳米复合材料和3D打印的结合可能会带来先进的、可扩展的、低成本和高性能的传感设备，用于日常健康监测和早期疾病筛查。在做出科学贡献的同时，该项目还将通过扩大工程学材料科学课程和创造针对美国原住民和女性学生的本科研究岗位来促进本科和研究生教育，并通过当地非营利组织uCodeGirl和自然计划造福K-12学生。该项目将开发一种先进的呼气丙酮传感器，该传感器由K2W7O22(KWO)纳米线和层状结构的Ti4C3 MXene纳米片组成的纳米复合材料构建，其中KWO作为传感材料，MXene的功能不仅提高了传感器作为支撑材料的性能，而且使传感材料成为3D可重复打印的，从而使传感器设备获得所需的3D结构，并在可伸缩性、灵活性和稳定性方面得到增强。该项目的主要目标是提供一种基于呼吸分析的新型传感器设备，用于日常糖尿病健康监测。这项研究将涉及(1)合成对呼气丙酮具有满意灵敏度和选择性的一维/二维KWO/Ti4C3 MXene纳米复合传感材料，(2)开发KWO/Ti4C3纳米复合墨水配方，用于通过直接墨水写入(DIW)制备具有可控图案和3D结构的丙酮传感器，以及(3)形成具有高灵敏度、良好的选择性、高信噪比、前所未有的信号可靠性、室温操作、可扩展制造、低成本和便携的呼气丙酮传感器原型。该项目的成功将为基于纳米材料的功能性气体传感器的设计和制造提供指导，该传感器利用3D结构来提高传感器的性能，并使用3D打印技术来实现传感器器件的批量生产和可重复制造。该方法可以很容易地扩展到其他应用，如用于大流行预防的传感器，用于慢性病管理的负担得起的终身医疗设备，用于癌症生物标记物检测的支架传感器，以及用于长期健康保护的空气/水/食品质量控制。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Modern medicine and health management highly demand novel noninvasive techniques for rapid disease detection and early screening. The development of low cost, portable and reliable devices for analyzing disease-related volatile organic compounds (VOCs), for example, acetone, the biomarker of diabetes, in human breath has been a both attractive and competitive frontier in medical diagnostics, therapy control, and health management. The great progress in the synthesis of advanced materials, especially nano-structured materials, and the invention of new manufacturing techniques provide an opportunity to design and fabricate advanced medical devices that can do noninvasive diagnosis, are inexpensive and portable, and are therefore suitable for use at home or clinics. Two-dimensional transition metal carbides/nitrides (MXene) are an emerging family of nanomaterials which hold great promise in enhancing the performance of electric devices in view of their multi-layered, porous structures, high surface-to-volume ratio, rich and tunable surface chemistry and excellent conductivity. 3D printing is a versatile technique which offers a simple, less material-wasting strategy for the rapid and straightforward prototyping of bespoke 3D architectures. The combination of sensing material, MXene nanocomposites and 3D printing may potentially lead to advanced, scalable, low-cost, and high-performance sensing devices for daily health monitoring and early disease screening. Along with the scientific contribution, the project will also promote undergraduate and graduate education through expanding material science curriculum in Engineering and creating undergraduate research positions targeting American Natives and female students, and benefit K-12 students via local non-profit organization, uCodeGirl and Nature program.This project will develop an advanced breath acetone sensor constructed with nanocomposite of K2W7O22 (KWO) nanowires and layer structured Ti4C3 MXene nanosheets, in which KWO serves as the sensing material and MXene functions to not only enhance the sensor performance as the supporting material but also make the sensing material become 3D printable and accordingly enable the sensor device to gain a desired 3D architecture with an enhancement in the repeatability, flexibility and stability. The primary goal of the project is to deliver a novel breath analysis-based sensor device for daily diabetes health monitoring. The research will involve (1) the synthesis of 1D/2D KWO/Ti4C3 MXene nanocomposite sensing materials that demonstrate satisfactory sensitivity and selectivity in detecting breath acetone, (2) the development of a formulation of KWO/Ti4C3 nanocomposite ink for the fabrication of acetone sensors with controllable pattern and 3D architecture via direct ink writing (DIW), and (3) the formation of a prototype of breath acetone sensor that features high sensitivity, excellent selectivity, high signal to noise ratio, unprecedented signal reliability, room-temperature operation, scalable manufacturing, low cost and being portable. Success in this project will provide a guidance to the design and fabrication of functional nanomaterial-based gas sensors which utilize 3D architecture to boost sensor performance and use 3D printing technique to achieve mass production and reproducible fabrication of the sensor devices. The approach can be readily extended to other applications, such as sensors for pandemic prevention, affordable life-time medical devices for chronic diseases management, scaffold sensors for cancer biomarker detection, and air/water/food quality control for long-term health protection.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.