Eager to find another way to determine if you have bad breath without having to ask and thus offend those around you? Thanks to new research, a sensor has been developed that will inform you when your breath is bad — all without having to involve other people.

Publishing their findings in the American Chemical Society journal Analytical Chemistry, Il-Doo Kim and a team of scientists set out to develop a portable and sensitive “bad breath” detector for doctors to use to quickly and inexpensively detect halitosis in patients, as it is often a symptom of a larger health issue.

Anchoring lead(II) acetate — a chemical that turns brown in the presence of hydrogen sulfide gas — to a 3D nanofiber web, the team created a number of locations for hydrogen sulfide gas and the lead acetate to react. Measuring color changes from white to brown on the surface of the sensor, the team located roughly 400 ppb of hydrogen sulfide in just one minute.

For more on the study, go to Analytical Chemistry.

To contact the author of this article, email mdonlon@globalspec.com