Different ultrapure monodispersed metal nanoparticles (AuNP, CuNP and PtNP) were synthesized from their pure metal precursors using the Advanced Gas Deposition technique. The experimental conditions during nanoparticles formation were adjusted in order to obtain ultrafine isolated nanoparticles. This led to the formation of highly ordered pure crystalline nanoparticles with a relatively uniform size distribution of ~10 nm (AuNP), ~ 4 nm (CuNP) and ~ 3 nm (PtNP), respectively. A broad range of organic ligands containing thiol or amine functional groups were attached to the nanoparticles to form continuous networks of nanoparticle-ligand nanoassemblies. The nanomaterials were fully characterized through SEM, XPS, FTIR and XRD studies. A chemical gas sensors array based on various ultrapure monolayer-capped metal nanoparticles nanoassemblies was employed with very promising results in a proof-of-concept demonstration of alveolar echinococcosis diagnosis through exhaled breath analysis.

Dr. Radu Ionescu is currently Guest Researcher in the Department of Engineering Sciences, Uppsala University, Sweden. He obtained his Ph.D. degree in Electronics Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia, Barcelona, Spain, in 2003. He was postdoctoral researcher, senior researcher and research director at Rovira i Virgili University, Tarragona, Spain; experienced researcher (FP6 Marie Curie Transfer of Knowledge Actions) at Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Italy; EC Senior Researcher at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology, Haifa, Israel; and project director at the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry Petru Poni, Iasi, Romania. Dr. Radu Ionescu’s research focuses on new routes of fabrication of controlled ultrapure nanomaterials for chemical gas sensors for VOCs detection and diseases diagnosis through volatile samples analysis. Dr. Ionescu is the Coordinator of the EU funded H2020-MSCA-RISE-2017 project “Volatolomics test for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis – bTB-Test”, and was the Coordinator of the recently finalized H2020-MSCA-RISE-2014 project “Development of a non-invasive breath test for early diagnosis of tropical diseases – TROPSENSE”.