PFI-TT: Plastic Electronic Gas Sensors for Health Monitoring via Mobile Devices

Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore MD

Investigators

Abstract

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Partnerships for Innovation - Technology Translation (PFI-TT) project is to develop flexible electronic materials for mobile devices that can detect gases, identify them, and report the results to users. The materials and circuits will be designed so gases related to human health conditions can be monitored precisely, allowing the general population to take greater control of their health status. The new material functions will add to the scientific understanding of how gas sensors work, and what designs will fit best with ongoing advances in mobile device technologies. The innovations of this project stem from recent advances in plastic-based electronics to reach an extensive market of device users with metabolic and respiratory issues. An additional societal benefit will be the education and training of undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students in the electronics and materials technologies and pathways to commercialization. Some of these students will be recruited from an historically Black college, thus broadening representation in the technology translation ecosystem. The proposed project addresses the lack of electronic circuits that respond selectively to gases in the environment or breath. The proposed sensors will be integrated with commonly used mobile devices, are inexpensive to manufacture, and do not require high temperature cycles that stress the capacities of mobile device powering and thermal management. The objectives of the research are to prepare polymers with chemical functional groups and morphologies to recognize gases with moderate chemical reactivity, use these polymers in circuits and arrays to create a set of responses to specific gases even in the presence of interfering gases such as water vapor, and configure the circuits so they are electronically coupled to the power and information transfer circuitry of mobile devices. The outcome will be the designation of small sets (4-6) of polymers that give response patterns to gases of greatest interest at health-relevant concentrations (e.g., 1 part per million) and circuit designs that maximize longevity, repeatability, and mobile device compatibility. The main methods are polymer synthesis, polymer film and electrode deposition, electronic property characterization, and gas response evaluation. 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.