Conventional diagnostic methods for lung cancer are unsuitable for widespread screening because they are expensive and occasionally miss tumours. Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry studies have shown that several volatile organic compounds, which normally appear at levels of 1-20 ppb in healthy human breath, are elevated to levels between 10 and 100 ppb in lung cancer patients. Here we show that an array of sensors based on gold nanoparticles can rapidly distinguish the breath of lung cancer patients from the breath of healthy individuals in an atmosphere of high humidity. In combination with solid-phase microextraction, gas chromatography/mass spectrometry was used to identify 42 volatile organic compounds that represent lung cancer biomarkers. Four of these were used to train and optimize the sensors, demonstrating good agreement between patient and simulated breath samples. Our results show that sensors based on gold nanoparticles could form the basis of an inexpensive and non-invasive diagnostic tool for lung cancer.

Background:Tumour growth is accompanied by gene and/or protein changes that may lead to peroxidation of the cell membrane species and, hence, to the emission of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). In this study, we investigated the ability of a nanosensor array to discriminate between breath VOCs that characterise healthy states and the most widespread cancer states in the developed world: lung, breast, colorectal, and prostate cancers.Methods:Exhaled alveolar breath was collected from 177 volunteers aged 20–75 years (patients with lung, colon, breast, and prostate cancers and healthy controls). Breath from cancerous subjects was collected before any treatment. The healthy population was healthy according to subjective patient's data. The breath of volunteers was examined by a tailor-made array of cross-reactive nanosensors based on organically functionalised gold nanoparticles and gas chromatography linked to the mass spectrometry technique (GC-MS).Results:The results showed that the nanosensor array could differentiate between ‘healthy' and ‘cancerous' breath, and, furthermore, between the breath of patients having different cancer types. Moreover, the nanosensor array could distinguish between the breath patterns of different cancers in the same statistical analysis, irrespective of age, gender, lifestyle, and other confounding factors. The GC-MS results showed that each cancer could have a unique pattern of VOCs, when compared with healthy states, but not when compared with other cancer types.Conclusions:The reported results could lead to the development of an inexpensive, easy-to-use, portable, non-invasive tool that overcomes many of the deficiencies associated with the currently available diagnostic methods for cancer.

Background:Head-and-neck cancer (HNC) is the eighth most common malignancy worldwide. It is often diagnosed late due to a lack of screening methods and overall cure is achieved in <50% of patients. Head-and-neck cancer sufferers often develop a second primary tumour that can affect the entire aero-digestive tract, mostly HNC or lung cancer (LC), making lifelong follow-up necessary.Methods:Alveolar breath was collected from 87 volunteers (HNC and LC patients and healthy controls) in a cross-sectional clinical trial. The discriminative power of a tailor-made Nanoscale Artificial Nose (NA-NOSE) based on an array of five gold nanoparticle sensors was tested, using 62 breath samples. The NA-NOSE signals were analysed to detect statistically significant differences between the sub-populations using (i) principal component analysis with ANOVA and Student's t-test and (ii) support vector machines and cross-validation. The identification of NA-NOSE patterns was supported by comparative analysis of the chemical composition of the breath through gas chromatography in conjunction with mass spectrometry (GC–MS), using 40 breath samples.Results:The NA-NOSE could clearly distinguish between (i) HNC patients and healthy controls, (ii) LC patients and healthy controls, and (iii) HNC and LC patients. The GC–MS analysis showed statistically significant differences in the chemical composition of the breath of the three groups.Conclusion:The presented results could lead to the development of a cost-effective, fast, and reliable method for the differential diagnosis of HNC that is based on breath testing with an NA-NOSE, with a future potential as screening tool.

High energy and power densities are the greatest challenge for all-solid-state lithium batteries due to the poor interfacial compatibility between electrodes and electrolytes as well as low lithium ion transfer kinetics in solid materials. Intimate contact at the cathode-solid electrolyte interface and high ionic conductivity of solid electrolyte are crucial to realizing high-performance all-solid-state lithium batteries. Here, we report a general interfacial architecture, i.e., LiPS electrolyte particles anchored on cobalt sulfide nanosheets, by an in situ liquid-phase approach. The anchored LiPS electrolyte particle size is around 10 nm, which is the smallest sulfide electrolyte particles reported to date, leading to an increased contact area and intimate contact interface between electrolyte and active materials. The neat LiPS electrolyte synthesized by the same liquid-phase approach exhibits a very high ionic conductivity of 1.5 × 10 S cm with a particle size of 0.4-1.0 μm. All-solid-state lithium batteries employing cobalt sulfide-LiPS nanocomposites in combination with the neat LiPS electrolyte and Super P as the cathode and lithium metal as the anode exhibit excellent rate capability and cycling stability, showing reversible discharge capacity of 421 mAh g at 1.27 mA cm after 1000 cycles. Moreover, the obtained all-solid-state lithium batteries possesses very high energy and power densities, exhibiting 360 Wh kg and 3823 W kg at current densities of 0.13 and 12.73 mA cm, respectively. This contribution demonstrates a new interfacial design for all-solid-state battery with high performance.