Scalable Photonic Nose Development through Corona Phase Molecular Recognition

Breath sensors promise early disease diagnosis through noninvasive, rapid analysis, but have struggled to reach clinical use due to challenges in scalability and multivariate data extraction. The current breath sensor design necessitates various channel materials and surface functionalization methods, which delays the process. Additionally, the limited options for channel materials that provide optimum sensitivity and selectivity further restrict the array size to a maximum of only 10 to 20 channels. To address these limitations, we propose a breath sensing array design process based on Corona Phase Molecular Recognition (CoPhMoRe), which enables the creation of an expansive library of nanoparticle interfaces and broad fingerprints for multiple analytes in the breath. Although CoPhMoRe has predominantly been utilized for liquid-phase sensing, its recent application to gas-phase sensing has shown significant potential for breath sensing. We introduce the recent demonstrations in the field and present the concept of a CoPhMoRe-based photonic-nose sensor array, leveraging fluorescent nanomaterials such as near-infrared single-walled carbon nanotubes. Additionally, we identified four critical milestones for translating CoPhMoRe into breath sensors for practical clinical applications.