Anodic alumina coating for extraction of volatile organic compounds in human exhaled breath vapor

The objective of the study is to develop a facile and highly sensitive solid phase microextraction-gas chromatography/mass spectrometry method for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in human exhaled breath vapor. For the purpose, a highly ordered nanoporous anodic alumina coating was prepared by a two-step anodic oxidization method based on aluminum substrate. To have a good knowledge of the fiber, some features were characterized and the results indicate that the coating has several advantages, including excellent chemical and thermal stability, high mechanical strength, large surface area and good extraction performance. In addition, some parameters related to extraction efficiency were also studied. Under the optimal conditions, the coating was used to quantitatively extract volatile organic compounds. Good linearity and wide linear range were obtained with correlation coefficients (R-2) ranging from 0.9933 to 0.9999. The detection limits of benzene homologues, aldehydes and ketones were between 0.7 and 3.4 ng L-1. Relative standard deviations (n=5) ranged from 1.8 to 15.0%. Satisfied recovery (89-115%) was obtained at two spiked concentration levels. Finally, the developed method was successfully applied for the analysis of volatile organic compounds in human exhaled vapor samples of lung cancer patients and the controls, and the results were statistically analyzed with Independent-Sample T Test. The proposed method exhibits some outstanding merits, including convenience, non-invasion, low cost and sensitivity. It provides a potential tool for rapid detection of volatile organic compounds in human exhaled breath. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.