Sebastian Abegg


Last Name

Abegg

First Name

Sebastian

ORCID

0000-0002-7442-0580

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2018 - 201932020 - 20214
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Publications 1 - 7 of 7
  • Highly selective detection of methanol over ethanol by a handheld gas sensor
    Item type: Journal Article
    van den Broek, Jan; Abegg, Sebastian; Pratsinis, Sotiris E.; et al. (2019)
    Nature Communications
    Methanol poisoning causes blindness, organ failure or even death when recognized too late. Currently, there is no methanol detector for quick diagnosis by breath analysis or for screening of laced beverages. Typically, chemical sensors cannot distinguish methanol from the much higher ethanol background. Here, we present an inexpensive and handheld sensor for highly selective methanol detection. It consists of a separation column (Tenax) separating methanol from interferants like ethanol, acetone or hydrogen, as in gas chromatography, and a chemoresistive gas sensor (Pd-doped SnO2 nanoparticles) to quantify the methanol concentration. This way, methanol is measured within 2 min from 1 to 1000 ppm without interference of much higher ethanol levels (up to 62,000 ppm). As a proof-of-concept, we reliably measure methanol concentrations in spiked breath samples and liquor. This could enable the realization of highly selective sensors in emerging applications such as breath analysis or air quality monitoring.
  • Zeolite membranes for highly selective formaldehyde sensors
    Item type: Journal Article
    Güntner, Andreas; Abegg, Sebastian; Wegner, Karsten; et al. (2018)
    Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical
  • Breath Sensors for Health Monitoring
    Item type: Journal Article
    Güntner, Andreas; Abegg, Sebastian; Königstein, Karsten; et al. (2019)
    ACS Sensors
  • A pocket-sized device enables detection of methanol adulteration in alcoholic beverages
    Item type: Journal Article
    Abegg, Sebastian; Magro, Leandro; van den Broek, Jan; et al. (2020)
    Nature Food
    Alcoholic drinks contaminated, either accidentally or deliberately, by methanol claimed at least 789 lives in 2019, mostly in Asia. Here, a palm-sized, multi-use sensor–smartphone system is presented for on-demand headspace analysis of beverages. The analyser quantified methanol concentrations in 89 pure and methanol-contaminated alcoholic drinks from 6 continents and performed accurately for 107 consecutive days. This device could help consumers, distillers, law-enforcing authorities and healthcare workers to easily screen methanol in alcoholic beverages.
  • Screening Methanol Poisoning with a Portable Breath Detector
    Item type: Journal Article
    van den Broek, Jan; Bischof, Dario; Derron, Nina; et al. (2021)
    Analytical Chemistry
    Methanol poisoning outbreaks after consumption of adulterated alcohol frequently overwhelm health care facilities in developing countries. Here, we present how a recently developed low-cost and handheld breath detector can serve as a noninvasive and rapid diagnostic tool for methanol poisoning. The detector combines a separation column and a micromachined chemoresistive gas sensor fully integrated into a device that communicates wirelessly with a smartphone. The performance of the detector is validated with methanol-spiked breath of 20 volunteers (105 breath samples) after consumption of alcoholic beverages. Breath methanol concentrations were quantified accurately within 2 min in the full breath-relevant range (10–1000 ppm) in excellent agreement (R2 = 0.966) with benchtop mass spectrometry. Bland–Altman analysis revealed sufficient limits of agreement (95% confidence intervals), promising to indicate reliably the clinical need for antidote and hemodialysis treatment. This simple-in-use detector features high diagnostic capability for accurate measurement of methanol in spiked breath, promising for rapid screening of methanol poisoning and assessment of severity. It can be applied readily by first responders to distinguish methanol from ethanol poisoning and monitor in real time the subsequent hospital treatment.
  • Lifestyle Applications
    Item type: Book Chapter
    Abegg, Sebastian; Güntner, Andreas (2020)
    Breathborne biomarkers and the human volatilome
  • Thickness Optimization of Highly Porous Flame-Aerosol Deposited WO3 Films for NO2 Sensing at ppb
    Item type: Journal Article
    Abegg, Sebastian; Klein Cerrejon, David; Güntner, Andreas; et al. (2020)
    Nanomaterials
    Nitrogen dioxide (NO2) is a major air pollutant resulting in respiratory problems, from wheezing, coughing, to even asthma. Low-cost sensors based on WO3 nanoparticles are promising due to their distinct selectivity to detect NO2 at the ppb level. Here, we revealed that controlling the thickness of highly porous (97%) WO3 films between 0.5 and 12.3 μm altered the NO2 sensitivity by more than an order of magnitude. Therefore, films of WO3 nanoparticles (20 nm in diameter by N2 adsorption) with mixed γ- and ε-phase were deposited by single-step flame spray pyrolysis without affecting crystal size, phase composition, and film porosity. That way, sensitivity and selectivity effects were associated unambiguously to thickness, which was not possible yet with other sensor fabrication methods. At the optimum thickness (3.1 μm) and 125 °C, NO2 concentrations were detected down to 3 ppb at 50% relative humidity (RH), and outstanding NO2 selectivity to CO, methanol, ethanol, NH3 (all > 105), H2, CH4, acetone (all > 104), formaldehyde (>103), and H2S (835) was achieved. Such thickness-optimized and porous WO3 films have strong potential for integration into low-power devices for distributed NO2 air quality monitoring.
Publications 1 - 7 of 7