Acetone Gas Sensing with Pt-Doped SiC Nanotubes for Diabetes Detection at Room-Temperature

Gas sensors that sense excessive acetone in breath play a potential role for early detection of diabetes. Development of materials in this direction is therefore important area of research. Silicon carbide nanotubes (SiCNT) having heteronuclear and large bonds can be a potential candidate for acetone sensor. This paper presents a study on sensing behavior of platinum (Pt) doped SiCNT by calculations of electronic band structures, density of states, adsorption energy, sensitivity and charge transfer using dispersion-corrected density functional theory (D-DFT). Adsorption of acetone on Pt-doped SiCNT undergoes spontaneous endothermic reactions with modulation of electronic band structure and density of states of the nanotube. Findings show that sensing properties of Pt-doped on Si-site of SiCNT (Pt(Si)-SiCNT) differ from that on C-site of SiCNT (Pt(C)-SiCNT). Compared with pristine SiCNT, Pt(Si)-SiCNT exhibits high adsorption energy and high sensitivity (exceeding 10⁵) to acetone. On the other hand, sensitivity of Pt(C)-SiCNT is much lower than that of Pt(Si)-SiCNT and comparable to that of pristine SiCNT. Strong sensing behavior of Pt(Si)-SiCNT to acetone highlights its application in fabrication of new type of highly sensitive acetone sensors for diabetes monitoring at room temperature.