Gaseous reference standard for breath analysis

An increasing amount of research is going into detecting volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in exhaled breath to detect diseases and personalize treatment for patients: recently, these analytes has risen as potential biomarkers. The present work aims to examine different multi-component gas mixtures suitable for breath gas analysis. In addition, also the stability of these mixtures was investigated. The number of components tested were 31, divided in two gas mixtures A and B. These components are aldehydes, acetate compounds, aromatics compounds: the lists are available in the article. Gas components of mixture A and B were prepared in different concentration from 1 µmol/mol to 10 nmol/mol. All the mixtures were analytically verified and the expected analytical relative uncertainty is 10-15% for 10 nmol/mol mixture. The stability check is also performed after 1 year and 2 years. The mixtures demonstrated good stability, and tests are still on going.