In this work, we successfully demonstrate a fast method to determine the fish freshness by using a sensing system containing an ultrasensitive amine gas sensor to detect the volatile amine gas from the raw fish meat. When traditional titration method takes 4 h and complicated steps to test the total volatile basic nitrogen (TVB-N) as a worldwide standard for fish freshness, our sensor takes 1 min to deliver an electrical sensing response that is highly correlated with the TVB-N value. When detecting a fresh fish with a TVB-N as 18 mg/100 g, the sensor delivers an effective ammonia concentration as 100 ppb. For TVB-N as 28-35 mg/100 g, a well-accepted freshness limit, the effective ammonia concentration is as 200-300 ppb. The ppb-regime sensitivity of the sensor and the humidity control in the sensing system are the keys to realizing fast and accurate detection. It is expected that the results in this report enable the development of on-site freshness detection and real-time monitoring in a fish factory.
In this work, a TFB (poly[(9,9-dioctylfluorenyl-2,7-diyl)-co-(4,4'-(N-(4-s-butylphenyl)diphenylamine)]) sensor with a cylindrical nanopore structure exhibits a high sensitivity to ammonia in ppb-regime. The lifetime and sensitivity of the TFB sensor were studied and compared to those of P3HT (poly(3-hexylthiophene)), NPB (N,N'-di(1-naphthyl)-N,N'-diphenyl-(1,1'-biphenyl)-4,4'-diamine), and TAPC (4,4'-cyclohexylidenebis[N,N-bis(4-methylphenyl) benzenamine]) sensors with the same cylindrical nanopore structures. The TFB sensor outstands the others in sensitivity and lifetime and it shows a sensing response (current variation ratio) of 13% to 100 ppb ammonia after 64 days of storage in air. A repeated sensing periods testing and a long-term measurement have also been demonstrated for the test of robustness. The performance of the TFB sensor is stable in both tests, which reveals that the TFB sensor can be utilized in our targeting clinical trials. In the last part of this work, we study the change of ammonia concentration in the breath of hemodialysis (HD) patients before and after dialysis. An obvious drop of breath ammonia concentration can be observed after dialysis. The reduction of breath ammonia is also correlated with the reduction of blood urea nitrogen (BUN). A correlation coefficient of 0.82 is achieved. The result implies that TFB sensor may be used as a real-time and low cost breath ammonia sensor for the daily tracking of hemodialysis patients.
Articles you may be interested inHigh output current in vertical polymer space-charge-limited transistor induced by self-assembled monolayer Appl. Phys. Lett. 101, 093307 (2012); 10.1063/1.4748284High-performance space-charge-limited transistors with well-ordered nanoporous aluminum base electrode Appl. Phys. Lett. 99, 093306 (2011); 10.1063/1.3632045 Space-charge limited conduction in doped polypyrrole devicesA metal grid is sandwiched between poly͑3-hexylthiophene͒ to form a solid-state version of vacuum tube triode, where the vertical space-charge-limited current is modulated by the grid potential. The Al grid contains random submicron openings formed by a nonlithographic method. The multilayer polymer structure is made by spin coating. The operating voltage of the polymer space-charge-limited transistor is 3 V, and the current gain of 506 is obtained. The characteristics of the transistor can be tuned by the diameters and the density of the openings on the grid. Similar to the vacuum tube triode, the current follows a power law voltage dependence.
The microscopic states and performance of organic solar cell are investigated theoretically to explore the effect of the carrier mobility. With Ohmic contacts between the semiconductor and the metal electrodes there are two origins of carriers in the semiconductor: the photocarriers generated by photon absorption and the dark carriers diffused from the electrodes. The power efficiency of the solar cell is limited by the recombination of a carrier with either the photocarrier or a dark carrier. Near the short-circuit condition the photocarrier recombination in the semiconductor bulk decreases as the mobility increases. Near the open-circuit condition the dark carrier recombination increases with the mobility. These two opposite effects balance with one another, resulting in an optimal mobility about 10 −2 cm 2 / V s which gives the highest power conversion efficiency. The balance of the electron and hole mobilities are not necessary to maintain the optimal efficiency also because of the balance of the photocarrier and dark carrier recombination. The efficiency remains about the same as one carrier mobility is fixed at 10 −2 cm 2 / V s while the other one varies from 10 −1 to 10 −3 cm 2 / V s. For solar cell with a Schottky barrier between the semiconductor and the metal electrode there is no dark carrier recombination. The efficiency therefore always increases with the mobility.
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