Nanomechanical gas chromatography for metabolite detection and breath analysis

纳米传感器由于其独特的灵敏度和便携性等特性，在物理、化学和生物分析领域不断吸引着研究人员的关注。纳米机械系统就是一个例子：它们对单个分子称重的惊人能力已经确立了它们巨大的传感潜力。气相色谱是一种非常强大的分析技术，更广泛的便携式采用将有利于从环境监测到疾病诊断的广泛应用。该计划的主要目标是将纳米机械传感纳入气相色谱，以提供增强的功能。最终目标是通过廉价的便携式平台对气体分子进行可靠的检测和识别。在我们过去优势的基础上，三个相互关联的目标将使我们集中精力实现这些目标。1)纳米机械系统的灵敏度将被推向极限。2)一种新的气体微通道系统将被开发和利用，以最好地利用这种灵敏度。3)纳米机械传感器的分析能力将通过研究提供额外信息的部署（如不同传感器涂层的阵列）而扩大。这些努力将在实际化合物（如疾病生物标志物）的气相色谱中与纳米机械传感器进行比较。该项目创建的平台将对纳米光子学、纳米力学、气相色谱和分析传感等领域产生直接影响。预期的意义包括阐明快速发展的光子学和纳米力学联合领域，开发新的气相色谱技术，改进气体分子识别的更好的检测限制，生物标志物分析的新方法，以及无处不在的化学分析。本科生和研究生将在纳米制造、光子学、纳米力学、色谱学和代谢组学专业知识以及分析和光电子仪器的独特多学科环境中接受高水平的培训。

Nanosensors continue to attract intense research attention for physical, chemical, and biological analysis due to intriguing properties like exceptional sensitivity and the promise of portability. Nanomechanical systems are one example: their surprising capability to weigh individual molecules has established their immense sensing potential. Gas chromatography is a very powerful analytical technique where broader portable adoption will benefit a wide swath of applications ranging from environmental monitoring to disease diagnosis. The main objective of this program is to incorporate nanomechanical sensing into gas chromatography to provide enhanced functionality. The ultimate goal is robust detection and identification of gas molecules by inexpensive portable platforms. Building on our past strengths, three interrelated objectives will focus our efforts in working towards these goals. 1) The sensitivity of nanomechanical systems will be pushed towards an ultimate limit. 2) A novel gas microchannel system will be developed and exploited to best take advantage of this sensitivity. 3) The analytical power of nanomechanical sensors will be broadened by studying deployments which provide additional information (such as arrays of different sensor coatings). These efforts will be carried out as the nanomechanical sensors are compared to regular sensors during gas chromatography of real compounds such as disease biomarkers. The platform created in this program will have immediate impacts in the fields of nanophotonics, nanomechanics, gas chromatography, and analytical sensing. The anticipated significance includes elucidation of the rapidly growing combined fields of photonics and nanomechanics, the development of a new gas chromatography technique, better limits of detection with improved gas molecule recognition, new methods for biomarker profiling, and ubiquitous accessible chemical analysis. Undergraduate and graduate students will be trained to a high level in a unique multi-disciplinary environment of nanofabrication, photonics, nanomechanics, chromatography, and metabolomics expertise and analytical and optoelectronic instrumentation.