Harnessing the Wide-range Strain Sensitivity of Bilayered PEDOT:PSS Films for Wearable Health Monitoring

Hao Liu; Shiming Zhang; Zhikang Li; Tian Jian Lu; Haisong Lin; Yangzhi Zhu; Samad Ahadian; Sam Emaminejad; Mehmet Remzi Dokmeci; Feng Xu; Ali Khademhosseini

doi:10.1016/j.matt.2021.06.034

Harnessing the Wide-range Strain Sensitivity of Bilayered PEDOT:PSS Films for Wearable Health Monitoring

Matter. 2021 Sep 1;4(9):2886-2901. doi: 10.1016/j.matt.2021.06.034. Epub 2021 Jul 15.

Authors

Hao Liu^{1

2

3

4

5}, Shiming Zhang^{6

7}, Zhikang Li^{3

4

5}, Tian Jian Lu⁸, Haisong Lin⁹, Yangzhi Zhu⁷, Samad Ahadian^{3

4

5

7}, Sam Emaminejad^{3

9}, Mehmet Remzi Dokmeci^{4

5

10

7}, Feng Xu^{1

2}, Ali Khademhosseini^{3

4

5

10

11

7

12}

Affiliations

¹ The Key Laboratory of Biomedical Information Engineering of Ministry of Education, School of Life Science and Technology, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China.
² Bioinspired Engineering and Biomechanics Center (BEBC), Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049, P.R. China.
³ Department of Bioengineering, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁴ Center for Minimally Invasive Therapeutics (C-MIT), University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁵ California NanoSystems Institute, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
⁶ Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, P.R. China.
⁷ Terasaki Institute for Biomedical Innovation, 11570 W Olympic Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
⁸ State Key Laboratory of Mechanics and Control of Mechanical Structures, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing 210016, P.R. China.
⁹ Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹⁰ Department of Radiology, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹¹ Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, University of California-Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA.
¹² Lead contact.

Abstract

Mechanical deformation of human skin provides essential information about human motions, muscle stretching, vocal fold vibration, and heart rates. Monitoring these activities requires the measurement of strains at different levels. Herein, we report a wearable wide-range strain sensor based on conducting polymer poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulfonate (PEDOT:PSS). A bioinspired bilayer structure was constructed to enable a wide-range strain sensing (1%~100%). Besides, hydrogel was chosen as the biological- and mechanical-compatible interface layer with the human skin. Finally, we demonstrated that the strain sensor is capable of monitoring various strain-related activities, including subtle skin deformation (pulse and phonation), mid-level body stretch (swallowing and facial expressions), and substantial joint movement (elbow bending).

Keywords: Bioinspired structure; PEDOT:PSS; Strain sensors; Wearable bioelectronics; Wide sensing range.

Abstract

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