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进行疾病的快速检测和早期筛查。用于分析人类呼吸中的疾病相关挥发性有机化合物（VOC）（例如，丙酮，糖尿病的生物标志物）的低成本、便携式和可靠的设备的开发已经成为医学诊断、治疗控制和健康管理中既有吸引力又有竞争力的前沿。先进材料，特别是纳米结构材料合成的巨大进步，以及新制造技术的发明，为设计和制造先进的医疗设备提供了机会，这些设备可以进行非侵入性诊断，价格低廉，便携式，因此适合在家庭或诊所使用。二维过渡金属碳化物/氮化物（MXene）是一种新兴的纳米材料家族，鉴于其多层多孔结构、高表面积体积比、丰富且可调的表面化学和优异的导电性，其在提高电子器件的性能方面具有很大的前景。3D打印是一种多功能技术，它为定制3D架构的快速和直接原型设计提供了一种简单，更少的材料浪费策略。传感材料、MXene纳米复合材料和3D打印的结合可能会产生先进、可扩展、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。沿着科学贡献，该项目还将通过扩大工程材料科学课程和创建针对美国原住民和女学生的本科研究职位来促进本科生和研究生教育，并通过当地非营利组织使K-12学生受益，uCodeGirl和Nature计划。本项目将开发一种先进的呼吸丙酮传感器，该传感器由K2 W7 O22（KWO）纳米复合材料构成。纳米线和层结构的Ti4 C3 MXene纳米片，其中KWO用作传感材料，MXene不仅用作支撑材料来增强传感器性能，而且还使传感材料变得可3D打印，从而使传感器装置能够获得期望的3D架构，并提高可重复性，灵活性和稳定性。 该项目的主要目标是提供一种新型的基于呼吸分析的传感器设备，用于日常糖尿病健康监测。该研究将涉及（1）合成1D/2D KWO/Ti4 C3 MXene纳米复合传感材料，其在检测呼吸丙酮方面表现出令人满意的灵敏度和选择性，（2）开发KWO/Ti4 C3纳米复合油墨的配方，用于通过直接油墨书写（DIW）制造具有可控图案和3D结构的丙酮传感器，以及（3）形成呼吸丙酮传感器的原型，其具有高灵敏度、优异的选择性、高信噪比、前所未有的信号可靠性、室温操作、可规模化制造、低成本和便携的特征。该项目的成功将为功能性纳米材料气体传感器的设计和制造提供指导，这些传感器利用3D架构来提高传感器性能，并使用3D打印技术来实现传感器设备的大规模生产和可重复制造。该方法可以很容易地扩展到其他应用，如用于预防流行病的传感器，用于慢性病管理的负担得起的终身医疗设备，用于癌症生物标志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知识价值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.