Thermally Stable, Silica-Doped ε-WO3 for Sensing of Acetone in the Human Breath

Acetone in the human breath is a key marker for noninvasive diagnosis of diabetes. Here, sensing films of pure and SiO2-doped WO3 nanoparticles have been made, directly deposited and in situ annealed onto interdigitated electrodes by scalable flame aerosol technology. A unique innovation here is that these films consist of epsilon-WO3, a metastable phase that has a high selectivity to acetone. The effect of nontoxic Si doping on the epsilon-phase content and crystal and grain sizes was investigated and correlated to the acetone sensing performance of these films. The thermal stability of these materials was characterized as well, revealing a unique opportunity for reliable sensing of acetone and noninvasive diagnostics of diabetes. An optimal doping level with 10 mol % SiO2 resulted in highly sensitive and highly selective acetone sensors down to 20 ppb.