Non-Invasive Rapid Detection of Lung Cancer Biomarker Toluene with a Cataluminescence Sensor Based on the Two-Dimensional Nanocomposite Pt/Ti3C2Tx-CNT

Abstract

A novel two-dimensional nanocomposite Pt/Ti3C2Tx-CNT was synthesized for the non-invasive rapid detection of toluene, a lung cancer biomarker, via cataluminescence (CTL). Pt/Ti3C2Tx-CNT exhibited a good catalytic performance toward toluene. The CTL sensor based on Pt/Ti3C2Tx-CNT has the advantage of rapid response: The average response time was about 1 s, and the average recovery time was about 30 s. Moreover, the material has a wide scope of detection for toluene, and the limit of detection defined as 3 S/N was about 2 ppm. The optimal working temperature (150 °C) is lower than common sensors, so it has a broad prospect in the actual detection process. Aside from its weak response to formaldehyde, the sensor only exerted a strong response signal to toluene, and no response was observed to other VOCs, indicating that this CTL sensor has good selectivity for toluene. The possible sensing mechanism of CTL showed that toluene was oxidized to generate excited-state CO2*, which emitted a luminescent signal when it returned to the ground state.