Fe₂O₃ sensor for breath gas sensing

Various studies have shown that human breath analysis can detect the presence of different diseases in patients, such as cancer and diabetes. The presence of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in human breath can be different depending upon the disease that the patient is suffering from. The location of the affected organ in human body (e.g. lungs, stomach, pancreas, etc.) can also be identified on the basis of breath gas analysis. This encourage the development of advanced sensors that can detect VOCs which are present in very low concentrations at low pressures. In this study, metal oxide gas sensor was fabricated using pure Fe₂O₃ powder. Data Acquisition System was designed and interfaced with the sensor. Preliminary testing of the system was performed by using the sensor to detect the breath from one non-smoker and one smoker person. The response of the sensor increased when exposed to breath compared with response to air. A large difference in sensor response was observed between exposure to non-smoker and smoker persons breaths. Initial results show that the sensor developed in this study can be used to differentiate between human breaths and may give an indicator to the presence of volatile organic compounds which are known indicators for several diseases.