Beveled microneedles with channel for transdermal injection and sampling, fabricated with minimal steps and standard MEMS technology.

Microneedles hold the potential for enabling shallow skin penetration applications where biomarkers are extracted from the interstitial fluid (ISF) and drugs are injected in a painless and effective manner. To this purpose, needles must have an inner channel. Channeled needles were demonstrated using custom silicon microtechnology, having several needle tip geometries.

Applications of Chipless RFID Humidity Sensors to Smart Packaging Solutions.

Packaging solutions have recently evolved to become smart and intelligent thanks to technologies such as RFID tracking and communication systems, but the integration of sensing functionality in these systems is still under active development. In this paper, chipless RFID humidity sensors suitable for smart packaging are proposed together with a novel strategy to tune their performances and their operating range. The sensors are flexible, fast, low-cost and easy to fabricate and can be read wirelessly.

In vitro gastrointestinal gas monitoring with carbon nanotube sensors.

In vitro simulators of the human gastrointestinal (GI) tract are remarkable technological platforms for studying the impact of food on the gut microbiota, enabling continuous and real-time monitoring of key biomarkers. However, comprehensive real-time monitoring of gaseous biomarkers in these systems is required with a cost-effective approach, which has been challenging to perform experimentally to date. In this work, we demonstrate the integration and in-line use of carbon nanotube (CNT)-based chemiresitive gas sensors coated with a thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) membrane for the continuous monitoring of gases within the Simulator of the Human Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME).

Nano Hotplate Fabrication for Metal Oxide-Based Gas Sensors by Combining Electron Beam and Focused Ion Beam Lithography.

Metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) gas sensors are widely used for gas detection. Typically, the hotplate element is the key component in MOS gas sensors which provide a proper and tunable operation temperature. However, the low power efficiency of the standard hotplates greatly limits the portable application of MOS gas sensors.

Fabrication of a Highly NO-Sensitive Gas Sensor Based on a Defective ZnO Nanofilm and Using Electron Beam Lithography.

Hazardous substances produced by anthropic activities threaten human health and the green environment. Gas sensors, especially those based on metal oxides, are widely used to monitor toxic gases with low cost and efficient performance. In this study, electron beam lithography with two-step exposure was used to minimize the geometries of the gas sensor hotplate to a submicron size in order to reduce the power consumption, reaching 100 °C with 0.

Insights into the Sensing Mechanism of a Metal-Oxide Solid Solution via Diffuse Reflectance Infrared Fourier Transform Spectroscopy.

Recently, the influence of Nb addition in the oxide solid solution of Sn and Ti was investigated with regard to the morphological, structural and electrical properties for the production of chemoresistive gas sensors. (Sn,Ti,Nb)O-based sensors showed promising features for ethanol monitoring in commercial or industrial settings characterized by frequent variation in relative humidity. Indeed, the three-metal solid solution highlighted a higher response level vs.

Elucidating the Ambient Stability and Gas Sensing Mechanism of Nickel-Decorated Phosphorene for NO Detection: A First-Principles Study.

In the field of layered two-dimensional functional materials, black phosphorus has attracted considerable attention in many applications due to its outstanding electrical properties. It has experimentally shown superior chemical sensing performance for the room temperature detection of NO, highlighting high sensitivity at a ppb level. Unfortunately, pristine black phosphorus demonstrated an unstable functionality due to the fast degradation of the material when exposed to the ambient atmosphere.

Design of a Metal-Oxide Solid Solution for Sub-ppm H Detection.

Hydrogen is largely adopted in industrial processes and is one of the leading options for storing renewable energy. Due to its high explosivity, detection of H has become essential for safety in industries, storage, and transportation. This work aims to design a sensing film for high-sensitivity H detection.

First-Principles Study of Electronic Conductivity, Structural and Electronic Properties of Oxygen-Vacancy-Defected SnO₂.

The use of computer simulations has become almost essential for prediction and interpretation of device's performance. In gas sensing field, the simulation of specific conditions, which determine the physical-chemical properties of widely used metal oxide semiconductors, can be used to investigate the performance of gas sensors based on these kinds of materials. The aim of this work was to evaluate the physical-chemical properties of tin dioxide employed for environmental and health gas sensing application and to investigate the influence of oxygen vacancies on its properties by means of density functional theory.

Nanostructured SmFeO Gas Sensors: Investigation of the Gas Sensing Performance Reproducibility for Colorectal Cancer Screening.

Among the various chemoresistive gas sensing properties studied so far, the sensing response reproducibility, i.e., the capability to reproduce a device with the same sensing performance, has been poorly investigated.

Nanostructured Chemoresistive Sensors for Oncological Screening and Tumor Markers Tracking: Single Sensor Approach Applications on Human Blood and Cell Samples.

Preventive screening does not only allow to preemptively intervene on pathologies before they can harm the host; but also to reduce the costs of the intervention itself; boosting the efficiency of the NHS (National Health System) by saving resources for other purposes. To improve technology advancements in this field; user-friendly yet low-cost devices are required; and various applications for gas sensors have been tested and proved reliable in past studies. In this work; cell cultures and blood samples have been studied; using nanostructured chemoresistive sensors; to both verify if this technology can reliably detect tumor markers; and if correlations between responses from tumor line metabolites and the screening outcomes on human specimens could be observed.