Acetone gas sensing features of zinc oxide/tin dioxide nanocomposite for diagnosis of diabetes

Measuring the low concentration of acetone gas in human exhale is a fast and inexpensive method for diabetic diagnosis. Therefore, in the present paper the porous Zinc oxide/Tin dioxide nanocomposite (ZS) with nanoplate morphology and specific surface area of 52.1 m 2 · g −1 was synthesized via a hydrothermal method. The ZS was coated on an epoxy glass substrate with finger-type Cu-interdigitated electrodes by the spin coating technique and used as acetone gas sensor. The acetone gas sensing properties of the ZS film (ZSS) were investigated under different low acetone gas concentrations ranging from 0.5 to 10 ppm at various operating temperatures. The best responses of the ZSS was obtained at an optimum operating temperature of 110 °C, while superior acetone gas sensing performance was achieved at an operating temperature of 37 °C under various relative humidity, so that the sensor response below 11% and above 14.5% is related to the healthy humans and the diabetic patients, respectively. Moreover, the sensor displayed an acceptable selectivity to acetone gas than that other VOCs with long-term stability which suggests it is an excellent candidate for selective detection of the acetone gas in the human exhale.