Early-stage disease diagnosis is of particular importance for effective patient identification as well as their treatment. Lack of patient compliance for the existing diagnostic methods, however, limits prompt diagnosis, rendering the development of non-invasive diagnostic tools mandatory. One of the most promising non-invasive diagnostic methods that has also attracted great research interest during the last years is breath analysis; the method detects gas-analytes such as exhaled volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and inorganic gases that are considered to be important biomarkers for various disease-types. The diagnostic ability of gas-pattern detection using analytical techniques and especially sensors has been widely discussed in the literature; however, the incorporation of novel nanomaterials in sensor-development has also proved to enhance sensor performance, for both selective and cross-reactive applications. The aim of the first part of this review is to provide an up-to-date overview of the main categories of sensors studied for disease diagnosis applications via the detection of exhaled gas-analytes and to highlight the role of nanomaterials. The second and most novel part of this review concentrates on the remarkable applicability of breath analysis in differential diagnosis, phenotyping, and the staging of several disease-types, which are currently amongst the most pressing challenges in the field.

We report a controllable strain gauge factor obtained using a two-dimensional nanoparticle layer formed from platinum nanoparticles. A vacuum technique is used for room temperature nanoparticle deposition that allows control of the electrical resistance of the film, exhibiting semiconducting-like behavior when nanoparticle arrays cover the surface below a threshold value while above it a metallic behavior is prevalent. The highest sensitivity is obtained for intermediate density values of the nanoparticle assemblies, which could be explained using a tunneling and hopping current expression. The device, which exhibits more than one order of magnitude higher strain sensitivity than continuous metallic films, is fabricated at room temperature through standard lithographic processing allowing for miniaturization and easy integration in silicon technology or flexible substrates.

The insertion of an HfO _2-y layer within TiO _2-x /HfO _2-y /TiO _2-x resistive random access memory (RRAM) yields in low set power of 50 nW (10 nA at 5 V), low reset power of 3 nW (1 nA at -3 V), and good cycling variability (σ/μ <; 0.5). In addition, under pulse experiments, fast switching time of 1 μs, good 107 cycling endurance and retention performance at 150 °C, was demonstrated. The confinement of the switching effect into the HfO _2-y film, which has the highest oxygen content and deeper oxygen vacancy energy levels compared with the adjusting two layers of TiO _2-x which act as two series resistances, can explain the low switching energy. The gradual modulation of the resistance permits also the manifestation of longterm potentiation synaptic plasticity, induced by the application of a train of pulses with different repetition intervals. A quantitative model was applied in order to reproduce the analog SET/RESET responses of the trilayer configuration and highlight the role of the local distribution of oxygen vacancies. These effects in conjunction with the room temperature fabrication process used and the forming-free nature of the thin films are considered as an optimization route toward high-density RRAM design.