Publication Date
2016
Document Type
Thesis
Committee Members
Brent Foy (Committee Member), Ivan Medvedev (Advisor), Doug Petkie (Committee Member)
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Abstract
The ability to quantify trace chemicals in human breath enables the possibility of identifying breath biomarkers to aid in diagnosis. The vast majority of the studies in the analytical breath analysis rely on GC-MS techniques for quantification of the human breath composition1,2,3,4. THz spectroscopy of breath is rapid, sensitive, and highly specific molecular identification in complex mixtures containing 10-100 analytes with near `absolute' specificity. THz spectroscopic breath analyzers require chemical preconcentration. A newly developed custom preconcentrator was constructed and compared in its performance to a commercial system. Unlike the commercial counterpart, the new system does not require cryogenic liquids, is compact, and offers significant advantages in terms of ease of operation and facilitates further development of THz breath sensors. Its preconcentration efficiency was assessed. The THz spectrometer coupled with the custom preconcentrator demonstrated first THz detection of breath isoprene, a chemical not detected with the commercial device.
Page Count
53
Department or Program
Department of Physics
Year Degree Awarded
2016
Copyright
Copyright 2016, some rights reserved. My ETD may be copied and distributed only for non-commercial purposes and may not be modified. All use must give me credit as the original author.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.
