Pub Date : 2026-10-20DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c02846
Mengmeng Gu,Yaoxuan Jin,Xiuming Wu,Yuming Dong,Jing Wang,Guang-Li Wang
The development of innovative photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing strategies with exceptional selectivity and operational efficiency holds paramount strategic importance for advancing the frontiers of PEC technology. In this work, we present a novel congruent intercalation-induced symmetry breaking strategy to construct a highly selective PEC analysis platform. The near-perfect dimensional match between the ionic diameter of iodide (I–, 4.40 Å) and the interlayer spacing of BiOIO3 (4.41 Å) enables selective intercalation of I– while effectively excluding analogous halide ions (Br–, Cl–, and F–). This unique intercalation process induces charge distribution symmetry breaking around the IO3 motifs, resulting in a remarkable enhancement of the macroscopic polarization electric field in BiOIO3 and consequently amplifying photocurrent generation. The proposed system achieves ultrasensitive I– detection with an outstanding detection limit of 0.06 μM (S/N = 3), while maintaining exceptional selectivity. Furthermore, the PEC assay demonstrates superior operational efficiency, featuring a simplified workflow and rapid response time (3 min). This study offers a promising approach to induce symmetry breaking through spontaneous intercalation of exogenous species, circumventing the harsh high-temperature/pressure conditions typically required for chemical bond cleavage in conventional doping methods. The proposed strategy offers distinct advantages, including low energy consumption, mild operational conditions, and fast kinetics. More significantly, the introduction of symmetry breaking opens a new avenue for exploration of PEC sensing mechanisms, demonstrating broad application prospects and considerable potential for future development in advanced PEC systems.
{"title":"Anion-Intercalation-Induced Symmetry Breaking in Layered BiOIO3 Boosts Macroscopic Polarization toward High-Performance Photoelectrochemical Iodide Ion Sensing","authors":"Mengmeng Gu,Yaoxuan Jin,Xiuming Wu,Yuming Dong,Jing Wang,Guang-Li Wang","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02846","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02846","url":null,"abstract":"The development of innovative photoelectrochemical (PEC) sensing strategies with exceptional selectivity and operational efficiency holds paramount strategic importance for advancing the frontiers of PEC technology. In this work, we present a novel congruent intercalation-induced symmetry breaking strategy to construct a highly selective PEC analysis platform. The near-perfect dimensional match between the ionic diameter of iodide (I–, 4.40 Å) and the interlayer spacing of BiOIO3 (4.41 Å) enables selective intercalation of I– while effectively excluding analogous halide ions (Br–, Cl–, and F–). This unique intercalation process induces charge distribution symmetry breaking around the IO3 motifs, resulting in a remarkable enhancement of the macroscopic polarization electric field in BiOIO3 and consequently amplifying photocurrent generation. The proposed system achieves ultrasensitive I– detection with an outstanding detection limit of 0.06 μM (S/N = 3), while maintaining exceptional selectivity. Furthermore, the PEC assay demonstrates superior operational efficiency, featuring a simplified workflow and rapid response time (3 min). This study offers a promising approach to induce symmetry breaking through spontaneous intercalation of exogenous species, circumventing the harsh high-temperature/pressure conditions typically required for chemical bond cleavage in conventional doping methods. The proposed strategy offers distinct advantages, including low energy consumption, mild operational conditions, and fast kinetics. More significantly, the introduction of symmetry breaking opens a new avenue for exploration of PEC sensing mechanisms, demonstrating broad application prospects and considerable potential for future development in advanced PEC systems.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"46 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221718","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cortisol is a critical stress hormone, and its abnormal levels are closely linked to diseases such as depression and Cushing’s syndrome. Cortisol has only a single binding site, which precludes conventional sandwich immunoassays, and the large antibody size often masks its SERS signal. Existing silent-region SERS strategies are limited by low signal intensity and poor reproducibility, arising from small-molecule reporters with low scattering cross-sections and randomly distributed hot spots. To address these challenges, we develop a silent-region SERS platform based on plasmonic superlattice enhancement combined with a top–bottom nanogap cavity. The bottom layer is a superlattice film of gold octahedral nanoparticles that generate uniform hot spots and is functionalized with anticortisol antibodies. The top layer uses Prussian blue@Ag core–shell nanoparticles as integrated reporters that exhibit characteristic Raman signals in the 1800–2400 cm–1 silent region and are functionalized with anticortisol-binding globulin antibodies. Because serum cortisol predominantly exists as a complex with cortisol-binding globulin, we designed a SERS chip with a dual-antibody sandwich configuration. This configuration enables efficient target capture and signal transduction within the three-dimensional nanogap hot spots. This sensing chip achieves a detection limit of 17.43 pM in serum samples from 93 patients with depression, with a linear range of 10 pM–10 μM and high reproducibility. It also exhibits excellent selectivity toward common serum interferents and distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls. This work provides a robust approach for highly sensitive and specific SERS detection of single-binding-site small-molecule hormones and holds promise for objective molecular assessment of depression.
{"title":"Sandwich SERS Chip with Raman‑Silent Reporters for Ultrasensitive Serum Cortisol Detection and Depression Differentiation","authors":"Kanzhen Tong,Hongzhi Liang,Lingmeng Yu,Liping Song,Ermeng Gong,Xu Liu,Zhongze Lou,Yuwei Mi,Liemin Ruan,Youju Huang","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02418","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02418","url":null,"abstract":"Cortisol is a critical stress hormone, and its abnormal levels are closely linked to diseases such as depression and Cushing’s syndrome. Cortisol has only a single binding site, which precludes conventional sandwich immunoassays, and the large antibody size often masks its SERS signal. Existing silent-region SERS strategies are limited by low signal intensity and poor reproducibility, arising from small-molecule reporters with low scattering cross-sections and randomly distributed hot spots. To address these challenges, we develop a silent-region SERS platform based on plasmonic superlattice enhancement combined with a top–bottom nanogap cavity. The bottom layer is a superlattice film of gold octahedral nanoparticles that generate uniform hot spots and is functionalized with anticortisol antibodies. The top layer uses Prussian blue@Ag core–shell nanoparticles as integrated reporters that exhibit characteristic Raman signals in the 1800–2400 cm–1 silent region and are functionalized with anticortisol-binding globulin antibodies. Because serum cortisol predominantly exists as a complex with cortisol-binding globulin, we designed a SERS chip with a dual-antibody sandwich configuration. This configuration enables efficient target capture and signal transduction within the three-dimensional nanogap hot spots. This sensing chip achieves a detection limit of 17.43 pM in serum samples from 93 patients with depression, with a linear range of 10 pM–10 μM and high reproducibility. It also exhibits excellent selectivity toward common serum interferents and distinguishes depressed patients from healthy controls. This work provides a robust approach for highly sensitive and specific SERS detection of single-binding-site small-molecule hormones and holds promise for objective molecular assessment of depression.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221676","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Acetic acid has been identified as an early biomarker of salt stress in plants, enabling precise monitoring of plant health and timely detection of stress. However, its rapid and selective detection at room temperature remains challenging. Herein, we report an ionogel capacitive chemical sensor based on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix incorporating the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-vinylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([VBIM][BF4]). The resulting ionogel sensor exhibits high selectivity toward acetic acid over common volatile organic compounds, originating from solvent effects and electrostatic interactions between acetic acid molecules and the ionic liquid, as revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Owing to these interactions, the sensor achieves a rapid response time of approximately 6 s at room temperature, and the practical limit of detection is as low as 500 ppb. In addition, the sensor shows excellent long-term stability and mechanical flexibility. The sensor maintains stable sensing performance after 180 days of storage at room temperature and can be integrated with a wireless monitoring system. Furthermore, the sensor detects the acetic acid released by salt-stressed plants, highlighting its potential as an early-warning platform for agricultural stress monitoring.
{"title":"Fast and Sensitive Ionogel Capacitive Sensing of Acetic Acid at Room Temperature for Early Plant Salt Stress Detection","authors":"Gonghai Yang,Weiwei Zheng,Ziyi Guo,Chonghao Xiong,Yongwei Li,Chenshuang Pan,Chenghao Wang,Liqiong Zhang,Jiaying Yun,Jie Yang,Jia Huang","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c01948","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c01948","url":null,"abstract":"Acetic acid has been identified as an early biomarker of salt stress in plants, enabling precise monitoring of plant health and timely detection of stress. However, its rapid and selective detection at room temperature remains challenging. Herein, we report an ionogel capacitive chemical sensor based on a polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) matrix incorporating the ionic liquid 1-butyl-3-vinylimidazolium tetrafluoroborate ([VBIM][BF4]). The resulting ionogel sensor exhibits high selectivity toward acetic acid over common volatile organic compounds, originating from solvent effects and electrostatic interactions between acetic acid molecules and the ionic liquid, as revealed by density functional theory (DFT) calculations. Owing to these interactions, the sensor achieves a rapid response time of approximately 6 s at room temperature, and the practical limit of detection is as low as 500 ppb. In addition, the sensor shows excellent long-term stability and mechanical flexibility. The sensor maintains stable sensing performance after 180 days of storage at room temperature and can be integrated with a wireless monitoring system. Furthermore, the sensor detects the acetic acid released by salt-stressed plants, highlighting its potential as an early-warning platform for agricultural stress monitoring.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"16 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221717","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-10-20DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c02741
Nicolas Fontaine,Minh-Dat Nguyen,Thomas Corriveau,Frédérick Boisvert,Emma Fréchette,William Plante,Dima Cherepovskyi,Olive R. Zhao,James Millar,Hugh W. Pollitt-Smith,Emily Hoi Pui Chao,Jean Morin,Christian Iorio-Morin,Jérôme Côté,Philip E. Johnson,Philippe Sarret,Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme
Medical procedures often require the administration of drugs, whose dosing is typically guided by pharmacodynamic responses rather than direct measurement of concentrations. This limitation largely arises from traditional monitoring procedures that rely on repeated venous sampling followed by laboratory analyses using cumbersome and costly instrumentation, often returning results hours or days later. Access to a bedside platform capable of real-time drug monitoring would represent a major advance toward personalized dosing, particularly for drugs exhibiting rapid pharmacokinetics (t1/2 < 4 h). Here, we present PK-Tracker, a bedside device that enables real-time point-of-care monitoring of therapeutic drugs. We demonstrate its in vivo applicability for monitoring the curare rocuronium, a nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocker widely used for surgical procedures. Using a newly developed aptamer sensor, PK-Tracker provides time-resolved measurements every 10 s, allowing high-precision pharmacokinetic profiling. We also demonstrate PK-Tracker’s versatility through the continuous in vivo monitoring of the antibiotic vancomycin, highlighting the platform’s generalizability across clinically relevant pharmacological classes for broad therapeutic drug monitoring. Together, these results establish PK-Tracker as a promising bedside technology for real-time drug monitoring of short half-life drugs, enabling precision dosing toward improved perioperative patient care.
{"title":"PK-Tracker: A Real-Time Bedside Device for Continuous Therapeutic Drug Monitoring","authors":"Nicolas Fontaine,Minh-Dat Nguyen,Thomas Corriveau,Frédérick Boisvert,Emma Fréchette,William Plante,Dima Cherepovskyi,Olive R. Zhao,James Millar,Hugh W. Pollitt-Smith,Emily Hoi Pui Chao,Jean Morin,Christian Iorio-Morin,Jérôme Côté,Philip E. Johnson,Philippe Sarret,Philippe Dauphin-Ducharme","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02741","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02741","url":null,"abstract":"Medical procedures often require the administration of drugs, whose dosing is typically guided by pharmacodynamic responses rather than direct measurement of concentrations. This limitation largely arises from traditional monitoring procedures that rely on repeated venous sampling followed by laboratory analyses using cumbersome and costly instrumentation, often returning results hours or days later. Access to a bedside platform capable of real-time drug monitoring would represent a major advance toward personalized dosing, particularly for drugs exhibiting rapid pharmacokinetics (t1/2 < 4 h). Here, we present PK-Tracker, a bedside device that enables real-time point-of-care monitoring of therapeutic drugs. We demonstrate its in vivo applicability for monitoring the curare rocuronium, a nondepolarizing neuromuscular blocker widely used for surgical procedures. Using a newly developed aptamer sensor, PK-Tracker provides time-resolved measurements every 10 s, allowing high-precision pharmacokinetic profiling. We also demonstrate PK-Tracker’s versatility through the continuous in vivo monitoring of the antibiotic vancomycin, highlighting the platform’s generalizability across clinically relevant pharmacological classes for broad therapeutic drug monitoring. Together, these results establish PK-Tracker as a promising bedside technology for real-time drug monitoring of short half-life drugs, enabling precision dosing toward improved perioperative patient care.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"28 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218846","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-10-20DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c03916
Baoqin Hao,Jinghao Zhao,Zhanye Yang,Xin Li
The accurate detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in exhaled breath is important for the early diagnosis of periodontitis; however, it is limited by high humidity in the oral environment, contaminant accumulation, and multicomponent interference. Herein, we present a Janus-structured surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform featuring a dual-scale heterogeneous interface inspired by the asymmetric wettability of lotus leaves for sensitive detection of ppb-level H2S. Specifically, thermal treatment of polypropylene melt-blown fabric precoated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) induces hydrophobic residue migration, converting the surface to superhydrophobic. Moreover, the PDMS layer promotes dense growth of MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets followed by Ag nanoparticle deposition, constructing the superhydrophilic SERS functional side. The spatially heterogeneous wettability design achieves diode-like unidirectional liquid transport properties, effectively resisting signal interference at 90% relative humidity in exhaled breath. Importantly, the gradient pore architecture functions as a molecular deceleration layer, retarding the diffusion of high-kinetic-energy H2S and enriching it within the hotspots of the MgAl LDH/Ag nanocavities, yielding a limit of detection of 1.54 ppb. Clinical exhaled breath analysis has confirmed that this sensor integration strategy in KN95 masks exhibits feasibility and accuracy, holding promise as an effective technical means for early noninvasive screening and clinical diagnosis.
{"title":"Bioinspired Janus-Structured Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Mask with Dual‑Scale Heterointerface for Ultrasensitive Exhaled H2S Detection in Periodontitis Diagnosis","authors":"Baoqin Hao,Jinghao Zhao,Zhanye Yang,Xin Li","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c03916","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c03916","url":null,"abstract":"The accurate detection of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) in exhaled breath is important for the early diagnosis of periodontitis; however, it is limited by high humidity in the oral environment, contaminant accumulation, and multicomponent interference. Herein, we present a Janus-structured surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) platform featuring a dual-scale heterogeneous interface inspired by the asymmetric wettability of lotus leaves for sensitive detection of ppb-level H2S. Specifically, thermal treatment of polypropylene melt-blown fabric precoated with polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) induces hydrophobic residue migration, converting the surface to superhydrophobic. Moreover, the PDMS layer promotes dense growth of MgAl layered double hydroxide (LDH) nanosheets followed by Ag nanoparticle deposition, constructing the superhydrophilic SERS functional side. The spatially heterogeneous wettability design achieves diode-like unidirectional liquid transport properties, effectively resisting signal interference at 90% relative humidity in exhaled breath. Importantly, the gradient pore architecture functions as a molecular deceleration layer, retarding the diffusion of high-kinetic-energy H2S and enriching it within the hotspots of the MgAl LDH/Ag nanocavities, yielding a limit of detection of 1.54 ppb. Clinical exhaled breath analysis has confirmed that this sensor integration strategy in KN95 masks exhibits feasibility and accuracy, holding promise as an effective technical means for early noninvasive screening and clinical diagnosis.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"2 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221677","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
In situ detection is crucial for diagnosing lesions during surgery, endoscopy, or biopsy but has always been a challenge in medical diagnostics. Optical fiber biosensing needle probes, with their small size, can be nearly noninvasively guided to the lesion site for in situ detection. However, existing optical fiber biosensing probes are single-point sensors, unable to precisely locate lesions. We propose an optical fiber needle probe for in situ distributed sensing of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biomarker GPC3 in soft matter based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). The needle type probe is fabricated by integrating a polydopamine (PDA)-assisted anti-GPC3 antibody-functionalized micro/nano fiber into a metal needle with a lateral opening near the distal tip. Through differential-phase demodulation, calibration experiments with varying GPC3 concentrations reveal that the needle probe exhibits an 8 mm sensing length with a sensitivity of 0.0031 rad/(ng/mL). More importantly, the proposed needle probe achieves the precise spatial localization of both independent and simultaneous multiple 250-μm mimic lesions loaded by GPC3 in an agarose-glycerol hydrogel soft matter phantom with a spatial resolution of 25 μm and a limit of detection (LOD) of 3.23 ng/mL, which offers unparalleled advantages compared with existing biosensors. The proposed method provides a potential for in situ detection and localization of HCC or other lesions.
{"title":"Optical Fiber Needle Probes for In Situ-Distributed Biosensing Based on Optical Frequency Domain Reflectometry","authors":"Haohan Guo,Rongyang Zhu,Ji Liu,Qian Xu,Jinqi Deng,Kun Liu,Junfeng Jiang,Tiegen Liu,Zhenyang Ding","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c03392","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c03392","url":null,"abstract":"In situ detection is crucial for diagnosing lesions during surgery, endoscopy, or biopsy but has always been a challenge in medical diagnostics. Optical fiber biosensing needle probes, with their small size, can be nearly noninvasively guided to the lesion site for in situ detection. However, existing optical fiber biosensing probes are single-point sensors, unable to precisely locate lesions. We propose an optical fiber needle probe for in situ distributed sensing of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) biomarker GPC3 in soft matter based on optical frequency domain reflectometry (OFDR). The needle type probe is fabricated by integrating a polydopamine (PDA)-assisted anti-GPC3 antibody-functionalized micro/nano fiber into a metal needle with a lateral opening near the distal tip. Through differential-phase demodulation, calibration experiments with varying GPC3 concentrations reveal that the needle probe exhibits an 8 mm sensing length with a sensitivity of 0.0031 rad/(ng/mL). More importantly, the proposed needle probe achieves the precise spatial localization of both independent and simultaneous multiple 250-μm mimic lesions loaded by GPC3 in an agarose-glycerol hydrogel soft matter phantom with a spatial resolution of 25 μm and a limit of detection (LOD) of 3.23 ng/mL, which offers unparalleled advantages compared with existing biosensors. The proposed method provides a potential for in situ detection and localization of HCC or other lesions.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221716","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-10-20DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c02623
Dajian Wang,Xiangyu Li,Feiyu Zhang,Yiming Jian,Jianxun Nie,Yimeng Zhao,Jiayu Li,Ruiqin Gao,Guo-dong Li
Although acetone in exhaled breath is a reliable biomarker for diabetes mellitus, its trace-level detection under high-humidity conditions remains challenging for early noninvasive diagnosis. In this study, Au-loaded ZnO nanocages derived from ZIF-8 were synthesized. The 0.4 wt % Au/ZnO-based sensor exhibits an ultrahigh response of 260.6 toward 40 ppm acetone, a theoretical detection limit as low as 0.468 ppb, fast response/recovery (2/116 s), excellent selectivity, and long-term stability. Moreover, it successfully distinguishes simulated exhaled breath of healthy individuals from that of diabetic patients under 90% RH. Theoretical calculations reveal that Au clusters activate neighboring Zn sites through electronic transfer, enhancing the chemical adsorption capacity of Zn sites for acetone molecules—a mechanism that goes beyond the conventional view of increased adsorbed oxygen. These findings provide new insights into the activation of active sites by noble metal loading and offer a promising strategy for designing highly sensitive and humidity-resistant acetone sensors toward noninvasive diabetes screening.
{"title":"Activating Zn Sites of Au/ZnO Nanocages via Au Clusters Enables Highly Sensitive Acetone Detection for Diabetes Screening","authors":"Dajian Wang,Xiangyu Li,Feiyu Zhang,Yiming Jian,Jianxun Nie,Yimeng Zhao,Jiayu Li,Ruiqin Gao,Guo-dong Li","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02623","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02623","url":null,"abstract":"Although acetone in exhaled breath is a reliable biomarker for diabetes mellitus, its trace-level detection under high-humidity conditions remains challenging for early noninvasive diagnosis. In this study, Au-loaded ZnO nanocages derived from ZIF-8 were synthesized. The 0.4 wt % Au/ZnO-based sensor exhibits an ultrahigh response of 260.6 toward 40 ppm acetone, a theoretical detection limit as low as 0.468 ppb, fast response/recovery (2/116 s), excellent selectivity, and long-term stability. Moreover, it successfully distinguishes simulated exhaled breath of healthy individuals from that of diabetic patients under 90% RH. Theoretical calculations reveal that Au clusters activate neighboring Zn sites through electronic transfer, enhancing the chemical adsorption capacity of Zn sites for acetone molecules—a mechanism that goes beyond the conventional view of increased adsorbed oxygen. These findings provide new insights into the activation of active sites by noble metal loading and offer a promising strategy for designing highly sensitive and humidity-resistant acetone sensors toward noninvasive diabetes screening.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"22 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149221719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-10-19DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c02142
Qiuhong Zhang,Jinlin Liu,Xiuguo Zou,Yan Qian,Steven W. Su,Wentian Zhang,Maiken Ueland,Kainat Fatima,Taoping Liu,Shari L. Forbes
Metal oxide semiconductor electronic noses offer a compact and nondestructive method for volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis. However, reliable recognition of multicomponent mixtures remains challenging because of sensor cross-sensitivity, nonlinear adsorption–desorption dynamics, sensor drift, and long acquisition cycles. Eucalyptus, Rosewood, and Sandalwood essential oils were used as controlled plant-derived VOC benchmarks. Static-headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry showed partially shared constituents but distinct dominant headspace fingerprints: Eucalyptus was rich in eucalyptol and monoterpenes, Rosewood was linalool-dominant, and Sandalwood showed a substantially different and partly unresolved profile. The three samples therefore did not exhibit uniformly high compositional similarity. We developed MBWCT-Net, a physics-motivated Multi-Branch Wavelet CNN–Transformer Network that combines a Multi-Scale Wavelet Parallel Network, Lightweight Cross-Attention, and a Multi-Scale Adaptive Transformer to model multiscale response components, cross-band coupling, and local–global temporal dependencies. Under an identical five-fold protocol, MBWCT-Net achieved 95.37 ± 0.61% accuracy and 95.37 ± 0.66% weighted F1, outperforming both raw-input and wavelet-enhanced baselines. Using the first 45 s of the transient response, accuracy reached 94.61 ± 0.70%, within 0.76 percentage points of the complete 60 s response. Deployment on an RK3588 platform yielded a single-sample inference latency of 12.4 ± 0.8 ms and a memory footprint of 48.5 MB. These measurements characterize computational feasibility and do not represent the duration of the complete sensing cycle. Response plots from three independent measurements and normalization-shape checks assessed short-term repeatability and preprocessing effects. Quantitative high-dimensional feature metrics and measured-noise physical-validity analyses evaluated class separability and the preservation of temporal morphology, respectively.
{"title":"MBWCT-Net: Multiscale Transient Learning for Early Discrimination of Wood-Extracted VOC Mixtures via an Electronic Nose","authors":"Qiuhong Zhang,Jinlin Liu,Xiuguo Zou,Yan Qian,Steven W. Su,Wentian Zhang,Maiken Ueland,Kainat Fatima,Taoping Liu,Shari L. Forbes","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02142","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02142","url":null,"abstract":"Metal oxide semiconductor electronic noses offer a compact and nondestructive method for volatile organic compound (VOC) analysis. However, reliable recognition of multicomponent mixtures remains challenging because of sensor cross-sensitivity, nonlinear adsorption–desorption dynamics, sensor drift, and long acquisition cycles. Eucalyptus, Rosewood, and Sandalwood essential oils were used as controlled plant-derived VOC benchmarks. Static-headspace gas chromatography–mass spectrometry showed partially shared constituents but distinct dominant headspace fingerprints: Eucalyptus was rich in eucalyptol and monoterpenes, Rosewood was linalool-dominant, and Sandalwood showed a substantially different and partly unresolved profile. The three samples therefore did not exhibit uniformly high compositional similarity. We developed MBWCT-Net, a physics-motivated Multi-Branch Wavelet CNN–Transformer Network that combines a Multi-Scale Wavelet Parallel Network, Lightweight Cross-Attention, and a Multi-Scale Adaptive Transformer to model multiscale response components, cross-band coupling, and local–global temporal dependencies. Under an identical five-fold protocol, MBWCT-Net achieved 95.37 ± 0.61% accuracy and 95.37 ± 0.66% weighted F1, outperforming both raw-input and wavelet-enhanced baselines. Using the first 45 s of the transient response, accuracy reached 94.61 ± 0.70%, within 0.76 percentage points of the complete 60 s response. Deployment on an RK3588 platform yielded a single-sample inference latency of 12.4 ± 0.8 ms and a memory footprint of 48.5 MB. These measurements characterize computational feasibility and do not represent the duration of the complete sensing cycle. Response plots from three independent measurements and normalization-shape checks assessed short-term repeatability and preprocessing effects. Quantitative high-dimensional feature metrics and measured-noise physical-validity analyses evaluated class separability and the preservation of temporal morphology, respectively.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"12 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218843","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2026-10-19DOI: 10.1021/acssensors.6c02339
Padric M. Garden,Yudan Li,Vel Murugan,Alexander A. Green
Rapid, portable detection of multiple nucleic acid targets is essential for infectious disease surveillance and precision oncology. CRISPR-based diagnostics have set a high bar for sensitivity and single-base specificity, yet their reliance on collateral nuclease activity complicates multiplexing, integration with amplification, and point-of-care deployment. Here, we present TIMBER (templated incision mediated by endonucleases of repair), a non-CRISPR platform that achieves comparable performance without nonspecific nuclease activity. TIMBER uses a repair endonuclease to cleave probes containing abasic sites only when they are hybridized to a matched target. The system exhibits strong specificity, enabling single-nucleotide polymorphism discrimination. TIMBER provides an analytical limit of detection of 12 pM without preamplification or one copy per μL (1.6 aM) with preamplification through RT-PCR or RT-LAMP, with results observable by visual fluorescence or on lateral flow. We deploy TIMBER to detect SARS-CoV-2 in clinical saliva samples and further demonstrate multiplex detection of four targets, enabling identification of EGFR mutations in lung cancer samples. This approach offers a flexible, rapid, and low-instrument-ready solution for diverse nucleic acid diagnostics, from viral detection to cancer genotyping.
{"title":"Multiplexed Nucleic Acid Detection Using Sequence-Specific Cleavage Mediated by Repair Endonucleases","authors":"Padric M. Garden,Yudan Li,Vel Murugan,Alexander A. Green","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02339","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02339","url":null,"abstract":"Rapid, portable detection of multiple nucleic acid targets is essential for infectious disease surveillance and precision oncology. CRISPR-based diagnostics have set a high bar for sensitivity and single-base specificity, yet their reliance on collateral nuclease activity complicates multiplexing, integration with amplification, and point-of-care deployment. Here, we present TIMBER (templated incision mediated by endonucleases of repair), a non-CRISPR platform that achieves comparable performance without nonspecific nuclease activity. TIMBER uses a repair endonuclease to cleave probes containing abasic sites only when they are hybridized to a matched target. The system exhibits strong specificity, enabling single-nucleotide polymorphism discrimination. TIMBER provides an analytical limit of detection of 12 pM without preamplification or one copy per μL (1.6 aM) with preamplification through RT-PCR or RT-LAMP, with results observable by visual fluorescence or on lateral flow. We deploy TIMBER to detect SARS-CoV-2 in clinical saliva samples and further demonstrate multiplex detection of four targets, enabling identification of EGFR mutations in lung cancer samples. This approach offers a flexible, rapid, and low-instrument-ready solution for diverse nucleic acid diagnostics, from viral detection to cancer genotyping.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"56 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218845","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) is a definitive clinical biomarker for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Thus, its rapid and precise quantification is of paramount significance for clinical intervention. DNA hydrogels represent a premier choice for constructing rapid detection platforms due to their excellent target responsiveness. However, the severe mass transfer resistance inherent in the dense nanoscale networks of conventional hydrogels restricts the transport of biological macromolecules and signal probes, thereby limiting detection efficiency and sensitivity. In this study, an intelligent colorimetric sensing platform was developed by coupling a CRISPR-Cas12a system with a cryo-engineered DNA cryogel, integrated with a microfluidic chip and machine learning algorithms. Compared with conventional DNA hydrogels, the cryo-engineered DNA cryogel features an interconnected macroporous architecture that significantly reduces mass transfer resistance, thereby enabling bidirectional transport enhancement of CRISPR-nanozymes and accelerating signal response. Under optimized conditions, coupled with a microfluidic system and machine learning, the sensing platform exhibited a robust linear relationship within the range of 0.003–10.00 ng mL–1, with an ultralow detection limit of 0.011 pg mL–1. This strategy pioneers a novel pathway for rapid home screening of cTnI, establishing a critical paradigm for high-performance sensing platforms through material structural modulation and multidisciplinary integration.
心肌肌钙蛋白I （cTnI）是诊断急性心肌梗死（AMI）的明确临床生物标志物。因此，快速准确的定量检测对临床干预具有至关重要的意义。DNA水凝胶是构建快速检测平台的首选，因为它们具有出色的目标响应性。然而，传统水凝胶致密的纳米级网络中固有的严重传质阻力限制了生物大分子和信号探针的传输，从而限制了检测效率和灵敏度。在本研究中，通过将CRISPR-Cas12a系统与低温工程DNA冷冻凝胶耦合，集成微流控芯片和机器学习算法，开发了智能比色传感平台。与传统的DNA水凝胶相比，低温工程DNA冰凝胶具有相互连接的大孔结构，显著降低了传质阻力，从而增强了crispr纳米酶的双向传输，加速了信号响应。在优化条件下，结合微流控系统和机器学习，传感平台在0.003 ~ 10.00 ng mL-1范围内呈现稳健的线性关系，超低检出限为0.011 pg mL-1。该策略为快速家庭筛查cTnI开辟了一条新途径，通过材料结构调制和多学科集成为高性能传感平台建立了一个关键范例。
{"title":"Cryo-Engineered DNA Cryogels with Interconnected Macroporous Architectures for Enhanced Mass Transfer and Ultrasensitive cTnI Detection via an Integrated Microfluidic Platform","authors":"Meng Jiang,Bing Wang,Xinran Geng,Xinghan Sun,Jingyi Wang,Kejia Xu,Nan Li,Jinjin Zhao,Licong Jia,Lingmei Niu","doi":"10.1021/acssensors.6c02786","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1021/acssensors.6c02786","url":null,"abstract":"Cardiac Troponin I (cTnI) is a definitive clinical biomarker for the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Thus, its rapid and precise quantification is of paramount significance for clinical intervention. DNA hydrogels represent a premier choice for constructing rapid detection platforms due to their excellent target responsiveness. However, the severe mass transfer resistance inherent in the dense nanoscale networks of conventional hydrogels restricts the transport of biological macromolecules and signal probes, thereby limiting detection efficiency and sensitivity. In this study, an intelligent colorimetric sensing platform was developed by coupling a CRISPR-Cas12a system with a cryo-engineered DNA cryogel, integrated with a microfluidic chip and machine learning algorithms. Compared with conventional DNA hydrogels, the cryo-engineered DNA cryogel features an interconnected macroporous architecture that significantly reduces mass transfer resistance, thereby enabling bidirectional transport enhancement of CRISPR-nanozymes and accelerating signal response. Under optimized conditions, coupled with a microfluidic system and machine learning, the sensing platform exhibited a robust linear relationship within the range of 0.003–10.00 ng mL–1, with an ultralow detection limit of 0.011 pg mL–1. This strategy pioneers a novel pathway for rapid home screening of cTnI, establishing a critical paradigm for high-performance sensing platforms through material structural modulation and multidisciplinary integration.","PeriodicalId":24,"journal":{"name":"ACS Sensors","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":8.9,"publicationDate":"2026-10-19","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"149218842","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"化学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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