title: Dielectric barrier discharge micro-plasma emission spectrometry for the detection of acetone in exhaled breath.
abstract: Acetone is a predominant volatile organic compound (VOC) in the exhaled breath and a promising biomarker for diabetes and ketoacidosis. A non-thermal micro-plasma generated in a planar dielectric barrier discharge (DBD) is used as a radiation source for the excitation of gaseous acetone followed by its quantification with optical emission spectrometry (OES). Gaseous acetone can be directly sampled, while liquid acetone is evaporated by heated tungsten coil and then introduced into the DBD micro-plasma by a helium carrier flow for performing optical emission and detection at a 519 nm emission line. In the present study, the exhaled breath is collected and transferred into aqueous medium for sampling. With a sampling volume of 7 μL in a micro-drop, a linear range of 40-1600 mg L(-1) is obtained along with a detection limit of 44 ng and a precision of 5.7% RSD. The present system is successfully applied to the determination of breath acetone for both diabetic patients and healthy volunteers.
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Colleges of Sciences, Box 332, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Ting
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Colleges of Sciences, Box 332, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Dong-Xue
authors.initials: DX
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Colleges of Sciences, Box 332, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China; Department of Chemistry, Northeastern University, Box 332, Shenyang 110819, China.
authors.forename: Yong-Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Colleges of Sciences, Box 332, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China. Electronic address: chenml@mail.neu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Ming-Li
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Research Center for Analytical Sciences, Colleges of Sciences, Box 332, Northeastern University, Shenyang 110819, China. Electronic address: jianhuajrz@mail.neu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Jian-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000096:Acetone / Q000032:analysis*; D001944:Breath Tests / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D017097:Electric Impedance; D045853:Exhalation; D006801:Humans; D055100:Optical Fibers; D058626:Plasma Gases / Q000737:chemistry*; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
chemical_list: D058626:Plasma Gases; D000096:Acetone
keywords: Acetone; Dielectric barrier discharge; Exhaled breath; Optical emission spectrometry