Understanding the Potential of WO₃ Based Sensors for Breath Analysis.

Tungsten trioxide is the second most commonly used semiconducting metal oxide in gas sensors. Semiconducting metal oxide (SMOX)-based sensors are small, robust, inexpensive and sensitive, making them highly attractive for handheld portable medical diagnostic detectors. WO₃ is reported to show high sensor responses to several biomarkers found in breath, e.g., acetone, ammonia, carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide, toluene, and nitric oxide. Modern material science allows WO₃ samples to be tailored to address certain sensing needs. Utilizing recent advances in breath sampling it will be possible in the future to test WO₃-based sensors in application conditions and to compare the sensing results to those obtained using more expensive analytical methods.