Ultrafast trace-level detection of methyl nicotinate biomarker using TiO 2 /SiNWs nanocomposite-based sensing platform

The reported work presents an ultrafast and ultrasensitive sensing platform for the precise and reliable trace-level detection of Methyl nicotinate (MN) leading to early stage diagnosis of Tuberculosis (TB). The design and fabrication of the sensor was done using silicon nanowires (SiNWs) and titanium dioxide (TiO 2 ) nanoparticles-based nanocomposite. The structural morphology and elemental analysis of the fabricated sensor were done using various characterization tools such as scanning electron microscopy (SEM), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Energy Dispersive X-Ray Analyzer (EDA) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). With a very precise limit of detection (LOD) (10 ppb), the sensor response was observed to be 1.02. The fabricated TiO 2 /SiNWs sensor demonstrates good accuracy and reproducibility along with very fast response and recovery time, i.e., ~20sec and ~30sec, respectively. Hence, the results reported in the present work and the developed sensing platform using TiO 2 /SiNWs nanocomposite could be utilized for reliable and precise identification of TB at an early stage.