Plasma-assisted cataluminescence sensor array for gaseous hydrocarbons discrimination.

Combining plasma activation and cross-reactivity of sensor array, we have developed a plasma-assisted cataluminescence (PA-CTL) sensor array for fast sensing and discrimination of gaseous hydrocarbons, which can be potentially used for fast diagnosis of lung cancer. Based on dielectric barrier discharge, a low-temperature plasma is generated to activate gaseous hydrocarbons with low cataluminescence (CTL) activities. Extremely increased CTL responses have been obtained, which resulted in a plasma assistance factor of infinity (∞) for some hydrocarbons. On a 4 × 3 PA-CTL sensor array made from alkaline-earth nanomaterials, gaseous hydrocarbons showed robust and unique CTL responses to generate characteristic patterns for fast discrimination. Because of the difference in the component of hydrocarbons in breath, exhaled breath samples from donors with and without lung cancer were tested, and good discrimination has been achieved by this technique. In addition, the feasibility of multidimentional detection based on temperature was confirmed. It had good reproducibility and gave a linear range of 65-6500 ng/mL or 77-7700 ppmv (R > 0.98) for CH(4) with a detection limit of 33 ng/mL (38 ppmv) on MgO. The PA-CTL sensor array is simple, low-cost, thermally stable, nontoxic, and has an abundance of alkaline-earth nanomaterials to act as sensing elements. This has expanded the applications of CTL-based senor arrays and will show great potential in clinical fast diagnosis.