SBIR Phase I: Mobile Environmental Exposure Personal Sensors (MEEPS)

这个小型企业创新研究(SBIR)项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力是开发可穿戴传感器，用于监测慢性呼吸道疾病哮喘的环境污染触发因素，并使患者能够缓解病情恶化。商业化的最初目标是一种可穿戴传感器阵列，与智能手机集成，用于检测臭氧和二氧化氮，已知这两种物质会增加哮喘患者的发病率和死亡率。这款预期的产品在功能上被称为移动环境暴露个人传感器(MEEPS)，将使用颠覆性纳米技术和信号捕获方法，以比光学、紫外光度测量、加热金属氧化物半导体(HMOS)和电化学方法等竞争技术更低的成本、尺寸、重量和功率提供卓越的性能。MEEP将通过实施针对局部暴露引发的个别症状量身定做的个性化缓解方法，并在必要时通过移动电话提醒护理人员或医生，从而影响主动医疗保健。MEEP可以潜在地降低医疗成本和经济损失，提高世界各地哮喘患者的生产率和整体生活质量。此外，MEEPS支持将多个用户的持续空气污染物暴露数据上传到云中进行离线分析，以生成污染地图、参与式传感、流行病学研究、哮喘社区行动计划，并提高STEM学科的环境意识。该SBIR第一阶段项目建议开发低成本移动传感器阵列，用于同时测量周围个人微环境中多种化学品的暴露量。如今，市场上还没有这样的设备。MEEPS利用功能化碳纳米管(CNT)作为气敏元件，以薄膜的形式沉积在小的柔性电极上。创新之处在于提高了对目标气体的敏感性，同时减少了与环境中存在的其他氧化性化学品的相互作用。这是通过控制传感器表面共价连接到碳纳米管上的官能团的浓度来实现的。基线漂移通过与参考信号的差分比较来校正，参考信号在气体暴露之前定期监测。MEEPS将把碳纳米管探测器薄膜与一种商用片上低功率阻抗测量电路集成在一起，该电路跟踪由于气体在薄膜表面的分子水平化学吸附而引起的复阻抗变化。众所周知的化学电阻只测量电阻的变化，与之不同的是，MEEPS使用幅度和相位来降低对干扰化学物质的交叉敏感性。第一阶段工作的目标是通过利用变革性纳米技术与正在申请专利的机载电子设备进行阻抗测量来降低环境微环境中选择性和传感器漂移的技术风险。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。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to develop wearable sensors for monitoring environmental pollution triggers of a chronic respiratory disease, asthma, and empower patients to mitigate exacerbations. The initial target for commercialization is a wearable sensor array, integrated with a smart phone, to detect ozone and nitrogen dioxide, known to cause increased morbidity and mortality in asthma patients. The anticipated product, functionally referred to as Mobile Environmental Exposure Personal Sensor (MEEPS), will use disruptive nanotechnology and signal capture methods to provide superior performance at a lower cost, size, weight and power than competing technologies, such as optical, UV photometry, heated metal oxide semi-conductor (HMOS) and electro-chemical methods. MEEPS will influence proactive healthcare by implementing personalized mitigation approaches tailored to individual symptoms triggered by local exposure, and alerting the caregiver or the physician via mobile phone, as necessary. MEEPS can potentially decrease healthcare costs and financial losses, improve productivity and overall quality of life of asthma patients worldwide. Furthermore, MEEPS enables uploading continuous airborne pollutant exposure data from several users to the cloud for off-line analysis to produce pollution maps, participatory sensing, epidemiological studies, asthma community activism, and increased environmental awareness in STEM disciplines. This SBIR Phase I project proposes to develop low-cost mobile sensor arrays for simultaneous exposure measurements of multiple chemicals in the ambient personal microenvironment. No such device exists in the market today. MEEPS utilizes functionalized carbon nanotubes (CNTs), deposited as thin-films on small flexible electrodes, for the gas-sensitive element. The innovation lies in improving the sensitivity to the target gas while simultaneously reducing the interaction with other oxidizing chemicals present in the environment. This is achieved by controlling the concentration of functional groups covalently attached to the CNTs at the sensor surface. The baseline drift is corrected by differential comparison with the reference signal, periodically monitored prior to gas exposure. MEEPS will integrate CNT detector films with a commercial on-chip low-power impedance measurement circuit, which tracks changes in complex impedance caused by molecular level chemical adsorption of gases on the film surface. In contrast to the well-known chemiresistor, which measures only the change in resistance, MEEPS uses both amplitude and phase to reduce cross-sensitivity to interfering chemicals. The goal of the Phase 1 effort is to mitigate the technical risks of selectivity and sensor drift in ambient microenvironment by utilizing transformational nanotechnology integrated with patent-pending on-board electronics for impedance measurement.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.