E-Mail IMAGE: IoT chemical sensor that detects minute quantities of gas molecules adsorbed on the surface of the thin nanosheet view more Credit: COPYRIGHT (C) TOYOHASHI UNIVERSITY OF TECHNOLOGY. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Overview: Third-year doctoral student Toshiaki Takahashi, associate professor Kazuhiro Takahashi, and their research team from the Department of Electrical and Electronic Information Engineering at Toyohashi University of Technology developed a testing chip using semiconductor micro-machining that can detect volatile gasses in exhaled breath in ppm concentrations at room temperature. A polymer that expands and contracts when gas is absorbed is formed on a flexibly deformable nanosheet, and the amount of deformation that occurs when a target gas is absorbed is measured, allowing gas to be detected at high sensitivity. The testing chip, which is formed in the size of a few square millimeters with semiconductor micro-machining technology, is expected to contribute to telehealth as an IoT gas sensor that can easily be used in the home for breath tests.