Prototype micro gas chromatograph for breath biomarkers of respiratory disease

Abstract

Progress toward a prototype MEMS gas chromatograph (μGC) designed for analyzing complex mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in breath is described. This µGC, named SPIRON, integrates a multistage preconcentrator/injector, a dual-microcolumn separation module, and a chemiresistor array detector with commercial minivalves and a minipump. Here, we describe results showing thermal control of all key system components and then present the rapid separation of two complex mixtures: one containing lung cancer biomarkers and the other containing tuberculosis biomarkers, both in backgrounds of 30 common breath VOCs. The fully assembled SPIRON µGC prototype is also presented.

Micro Gas Chromatography: An Overview of Critical Components and Their Integration

“…The Zellers group at University of Michigan has designed μPCs with increased adsorption capacity and desorption efficiency . A PC not only enhances the concentration but also produces narrowly focused injection plugs due to rapid thermal desorption, and therefore it is also referred to as preconcetrator-focuser (PCF) or preconcentrator-injector (PCI). − The μPCF developed by the Zellers group comprised a silicon microheater with an array of vertically oriented high-aspect-ratio silicon slats as heating elements and the granules of Carbopack X as the adsorbent material. The whole structure was sandwiched between two Pyrex glass plates.…”

“…A combination of retention time and the sensor-array response pattern was used to uniquely identify each of the 11 compounds. Since then, there has been significant progress in the development of individual components as well as integration of these components for analysis of complex mixtures of volatile organic compounds (VOCs). ,,,,− …”

Gas Chromatography

“…The NSF funded Wireless Integrated MicroSystems (WIMS) Engineering Research Center (ERC) (www.wimserc.org) is in the final year of NSF funding for the center and is transitioning from an ERC to the WIMS institute. The center has been developing several parallel MEMS GC based systems for multiple applications, such as breath analysis (35), explosives detection (36), extraterrestrial exploration (37), and indoor air quality monitoring (38). They have developed new gas phase detectors such as nanoscale chemiresistor arrays (39) and microdischarge detectors (40).…”

A planar micro-concentrator/injector for low power consumption microchromatographic analysis of benzene and 1,3 butadiene

“…Moreover, these systems can provide a selective detection of a wide range of toxic compounds (Terry et al 1979;Reston and Kolesar 1994;Matzke et al 1998;Wiranto et al 1999;Lambertus et al 2005;Lu et al 2006;Zellers et al 2007;Ohira and Toda 2008;Radadia et al 2008;Jin and Zellers 2009;Zhong et al 2009;Kim et al 2009;Serrano et al 2009). …”