TY - JOUR
T1 - Terahertz Impedance Spectroscopy of Biological Nanoparticles by a Resonant Metamaterial Chip for Breathalyzer-Based COVID-19 Prompt Tests
AU - Sengupta, Rudrarup
AU - Khand, Heena
AU - Sarusi, Gabby
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the contribution of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in supporting this research. We also acknowledge support of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (Mafa'at) during the initial phase of this research. The help of Dr. Ifat Abadi-Korek to write the clinical results section in the proper medical terms is highly appreciated.
Funding Information:
The authors acknowledge the contribution of Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in supporting this research. We also acknowledge support of the Israeli Ministry of Defense (Mafa’at) during the initial phase of this research. The help of Dr. Ifat Abadi-Korek to write the clinical results section in the proper medical terms is highly appreciated.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 The Authors. Published by American Chemical Society.
PY - 2022/4/22
Y1 - 2022/4/22
N2 - We propose a tested, sensitive, and prompt COVID-19 breath screening method that takes less than 1 min. The method is nonbiological and is based on the detection of a shift in the resonance frequency of a nanoengineered inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant metamaterial chip, caused by viruses and mainly related exhaled particles, when performing terahertz spectroscopy. The chip consists of thousands of microantennas arranged in an array and enclosed in a plastic breathalyzer-like disposable capsule kit. After an appreciable agreement between numerical simulations (COMSOL and CST) and experimental results was reached using our metamaterial design, low-scale clinical trials were conducted with asymptomatic and symptomatic coronavirus patients and healthy individuals. It is shown that coronavirus-positive individuals are effectively screened upon observation of a shift in the transmission resonance frequency of about 1.5-9 GHz, which is diagnostically different from the resonance shift of healthy individuals who display a 0-1.5 GHz shift. The initial results of screening coronavirus patients yielded 88% agreement with the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) results (performed concurrently with the breath test) with an outcome of a positive predicted value of 87% and a negative predicted value of 88%.
AB - We propose a tested, sensitive, and prompt COVID-19 breath screening method that takes less than 1 min. The method is nonbiological and is based on the detection of a shift in the resonance frequency of a nanoengineered inductor-capacitor (LC) resonant metamaterial chip, caused by viruses and mainly related exhaled particles, when performing terahertz spectroscopy. The chip consists of thousands of microantennas arranged in an array and enclosed in a plastic breathalyzer-like disposable capsule kit. After an appreciable agreement between numerical simulations (COMSOL and CST) and experimental results was reached using our metamaterial design, low-scale clinical trials were conducted with asymptomatic and symptomatic coronavirus patients and healthy individuals. It is shown that coronavirus-positive individuals are effectively screened upon observation of a shift in the transmission resonance frequency of about 1.5-9 GHz, which is diagnostically different from the resonance shift of healthy individuals who display a 0-1.5 GHz shift. The initial results of screening coronavirus patients yielded 88% agreement with the real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) results (performed concurrently with the breath test) with an outcome of a positive predicted value of 87% and a negative predicted value of 88%.
KW - COVID-19 prompt test
KW - impedance spectroscopy
KW - metamaterials
KW - nanoantennas
KW - screening test
KW - terahertz spectroscopy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85128281761&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1021/acsanm.2c00954
DO - 10.1021/acsanm.2c00954
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85128281761
VL - 5
SP - 5803
EP - 5812
JO - ACS Applied Nano Materials
JF - ACS Applied Nano Materials
SN - 2574-0970
IS - 4
ER -