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

该项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是通过向一般人群提供可穿戴酒精监测设备，从而提高对酒精消费的认识，最终增进健康，延长寿命，减少疾病和残疾的负担。轻率饮酒会造成健康和社会问题，这些问题或因长期持续饮酒而显现（如心脏病、癌症、肝病、糖尿病等），或因急性中毒和/或决策受损而显现（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有8.8万人死亡，仅2006年一年就造成了约2240亿美元的经济损失。鉴于上述社会影响，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的迫切需要，以减少过度饮酒造成的生命损失和巨大的经济成本。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，这突显了对个性化医疗保健日益增长的需求，这也表明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、轻便、不显眼、方便使用的酒精传感器的需求，用于实时自我监测酒精消耗。在美国，过度饮酒是一种危害健康的行为，也是第四大可预防的死亡原因。大多数改善安全饮酒的战略依赖于获得准确和及时的酒精消费信息；这些包括饮酒次数和时间的自我报告、酒精测试仪、实验室血液分析和可穿戴设备。与其他自我监测方法相比，可穿戴式酒精监测仪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，并且不能提供有关醉酒水平的一致实时数据。在第一阶段的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，并以标准呼气测醉仪读数为基准。石墨烯传感器和呼气测醉器之间的良好相关性将确认我们提议的项目的技术和商业可行性，从而导致第二阶段的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.