Date of Project

4-18-2026

Document Type

Honors Thesis

School Name

College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Chemistry

Major Advisor

Dr. Saurin Sutaria

Second Advisor

Dr. Amanda Krzysiak

Abstract

Breath analysis has emerged as a non-invasive and inexpensive way to screen for respiratory diseases. This technique involves measuring concentrations of specific metabolites found in exhaled breath that serve as a biomarkers for disease. A subclass of volatile organic compounds called α,β-Unsaturated aldehydes, products of the lipid peroxidation mechanism, are underrepresented as biomarkers of lung cancer. These have been found to have relatively increased concentrations in the exhaled breath of lung cancer patients compared to a healthy patient. One of the reasons that these metabolites have been underreported is that the techniques used to measure and characterized exhaled metabolites do not concentrate the aldehyde metabolites into a detectable amount. These compounds are also very reactive making them harder to detect. Studies that did report them as biomarkers used a derivatization technique followed by preconcentration. Current methods involve passing a breath sample through a microchip that has been coated with a capture reagent. This chemoselective reagent reacts with both aldehydes and ketones. It has also been shown that hydrazine functionality reacts faster with α,β-unsaturated aldehydes compared to aminooxy. The established protocol uses 2-aminooxy-N,N,N-trimethylethan-1-ammonium (ATM) as the aldehyde capture reagent. Here we reports the synthesis and attempted purification of 2-hydrazinyl-N,N,N-trimethylethan-1-ammonium (HTM) which is analogous to the ATM compound, but the hydrazinyl moiety would theoretically lead to greater biomarker capture.

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