Engineering Commons^™

Novel Breath Collection Techniques For Detection Of Covid-19., James Morris

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC) generated endogenously in the human body can be used to detect diseases that induce oxidative stress and inflammation. Breath analysis has been used for the detection of diseases such as COPD, Depression, Lung Cancer and most recently COVID-19. Methods such as Exhaled Breath Condensate (EBC), Sorbent Tubes, Solid Phase Microextraction (SPME), and silicon microreactors have shown considerable capability in extracting and concentrating trace VOC’s present in human breath. Silicon microreactors functionalized with capture agents to derivatize carbonyl compounds are effective but the overall maximum flow rate of breath sample possible during analysis is low, making direct …