In Nano: Highlights of Recent ACS Nano Articles

Chronic kidney disease (CKD) affects hundreds of millions of patients worldwide.Although early detection of this common disease is essential for early interventions and therapies to slow progression, CKD is usually asymptomatic at early stages, so most patients are unaware they have it until they reach later stages with a poor prognosis.Mass screening is hindered by high instrumentation and operation requirements and accessible and reliable detection methods for CKD biomarkers, such as trace ammonia in breath.For later-stage patients, constant and prompt monitoring is critical to evaluate the need for dialysis, but conventional monitoring methods are based on blood and urine tests that are labor-intensive and time-consuming.A facile and inexpensive way to diagnose and monitor CKD could save countless lives.Luo and Swager (DOI: 10.1021/acsnano.3c07325)took a step closer to that goal, reporting a device that can reliably detect ammonia in breath in the low parts per billion (ppb).The researchers synthesized single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) decorated with pentiptycene-based conjugated polymers, which enhanced the effective charge transfer from ammonia to the p-doped SWCNTs.Using these as detectors, the researchers fabricated chemiresistive devices by drop-casting a small amount of dispersions containing these materials between gold electrodes deposited on a glass substrate.Pentiptycene polymers containing Cu showed the best performance in detecting ammonia at low concentrations.By incorporating these detectors into near-field communication tags, the scientists were able to detect ammonia wirelessly at physiologically relevant levels.The authors suggest that these devices could provide a noninvasive and cost-effective approach for early detection and monitoring of CKD.