Wearable electronic sensors are an emerging trend in the health sensor technology mainly because of their ability to monitor a variety of human activities ranging from heart rate to calorie and step count.
However, the main hindrances in this trend have been the various challenges regarding the development of an appropriate sensor which properly adheres to human skin.
According to an article by Science Daily, various factors come into play while choosing the most appropriate sensor including flexibility, comfort and the ability to adhere to both wet and dry skin. The substrate is perhaps one of the most crucial parts of the sensor, as this is the material on which the sensing compounds depend upon.
The most common substrate is woven yarn, however it is not very effective as it does not fully contact the skin especially if the skin is hairy. Moreover, most threads and yarns are sensitive to wet environments and tend to lose their grip underwater. In dry environments, on the other hand, they become too sticky and can be painful while peeling it off.
In order to overcome these difficulties, a low cost graphene based sensor with a substrate similar to yarn that uses octopus like suckers to adhere to the skin, was developed by researchers.
This sensor is coated in elastic polyurethane and polyester fabric with graphene oxide and soaked in L-ascorbic acid. This will aid the sensor in conductivity and maintain the strength and stretch. An additional coating of graphene and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) film help in forming a conductive path between fabric and skin. The final touch was the addition of tiny, octopus-like patterns etched on the film.
The sensor can be used to monitor various human activities including pulse and speech patterns. These sensors can have monumental medical applications.
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