Integrated One-Step\nFabrication of Protonic Sensing\nDevices for Respiratory Monitoring

The development of direct fabrication routes with seamless\nintegration\nof both the macro/micropatterning process and nanostructure synthesis\nis crucial for the commercial realization of cost-effective nanoscale\nsensor devices. This, if realized, can liberate us from the conventional\nlimitations inherent in nanoscale device manufacturing. Specifically,\nsuch fabrication routes can, in principle, address the challenges\nsuch as the complexity, multistep nature, and substantial costs associated\nwith existing technologies, which are not suitable for widespread\nmarket adoption in everyday-use devices. Herein, we propose a novel\nyet facile one-step fabrication approach that simultaneously accomplishes\nboth patterning and nanostructure synthesis by employing low-power,\ncost-effective laser technology with a minimal environmental footprint.\nVersatile in nature, this approach can enable the incorporation of\ndiverse functionalities spanning a broad spectrum of technologies,\nencompassing fields such as sensors, catalysts, photonics, energy\nstorage, and biomedical monitoring devices. As a proof of concept,\nusing our approach, we fabricated an ultra responsive, high-speed\nprotonic sensing device for real-time respiratory monitoring. The\nenhanced temporal characteristics of our as-fabricated device, particularly\nin the relative humidity levels of interest in breath monitoring (typically\nover 55%), exhibited a superior response/recovery time in rapid humidity\nfluctuations. We envisage that the advantages brought by the presented\nfabrication approach can pave the way to establish a new method for\ninexpensive large-scale functional-material-based device fabrication.