A small, thin square of an organic plastic that can detect disease markers in breath or toxins in a building’s air could soon be the basis of portable, disposable sensor devices. By riddling the thin plastic films with pores, University of Illinois researchers made the devices sensitive enough to detect at levels that are far too low to smell, yet are important to human health.
In a new study in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, professor Ying Diao’s research group demonstrated a device that monitors ammonia in breath, a sign of kidney failure.
