Efficient detection of nitric oxide a biomarker associated with COVID19 via N, P co-doped C₆₀ fullerene: a...

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is a novel respiratory viral infection, causing a relatively large number of deaths especially in people who underly lung diseases such as chronic obstructive pulmonary and asthma, and humans are still suffering from the limited testing capacity. In this article, a solution is proposed for the detection of COVID-19 viral infections through the analysis of exhaled breath gasses, i.e., nitric oxide, a prominent biomarker released by respiratory epithelial, as a non-invasive and time-saving approach. Here, we designed a novel and low-cost N and P co-doped C₆₀ fullerene-based breathalyzer for the detection of NO gas exhaled from the respiratory epithelial cells. This breathalyzer shows a quick response to the detection of NO gas by directly converting NO to NO₂ without passing any energy barrier (0 kcal/mol activation energy). The recovery time of breathalyzer is very short (0.98 × 10³ s), whereas it is highly selective for NO sensing in the mixture of CO₂ and H₂O gasses. The study provides an idea for the synthesis of low-cost (compared to previously reported Au atom decorated nanostructure and metal-based breathalyzer), efficient, and highly selective N and P co-doped C₆₀ fullerene-based breathalyzer for COVID-19 detection.

The geometries of N and P-doped systems and gas molecules are simulated using spin-polarized density functional theory calculations.