Carbon fiber-based multichannel solid-contact potentiometric ion sensors for real-time sweat electrolyte monitoring

Meixue Lai; Lijie Zhong; Siyi Liu; Yitian Tang; Tingting Han; Huali Deng; Yu Bao; Yingming Ma; Wei Wang; Li Niu; Shiyu Gan

doi:10.1016/j.aca.2023.342046

Carbon fiber-based multichannel solid-contact potentiometric ion sensors for real-time sweat electrolyte monitoring

Anal Chim Acta. 2024 Jan 25:1287:342046. doi: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.342046. Epub 2023 Nov 21.

Authors

Meixue Lai¹, Lijie Zhong², Siyi Liu¹, Yitian Tang¹, Tingting Han¹, Huali Deng¹, Yu Bao¹, Yingming Ma¹, Wei Wang¹, Li Niu³, Shiyu Gan⁴

Affiliations

¹ Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Sensing Materials & Devices, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Center for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China.
² Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Sensing Materials & Devices, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Center for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China. Electronic address: ccljzhong@gzhu.edu.cn.
³ Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Sensing Materials & Devices, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Center for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China; School of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Sun Yat-sen University, Zhuhai, 519082, PR China.
⁴ Guangdong Engineering Technology Research Center for Sensing Materials & Devices, Guangzhou Key Laboratory of Sensing Materials & Devices, Center for Advanced Analytical Science, School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Guangzhou University, Guangzhou, 510006, PR China. Electronic address: ccsygan@gzhu.edu.cn.

PMID: 38182362
DOI: 10.1016/j.aca.2023.342046

Abstract

Solid-contact ion-selective electrodes (SC-ISEs) feature miniaturization and integration that have gained extensive attention in non-invasive wearable sweat electrolyte sensors. The state-of-the-art wearable SC-ISEs mainly use polyethylene terephthalate, gold and carbon nanotube fibers as flexible substrates but suffer from uncomfortableness, high cost and biotoxicity. Herein, we report carbon fiber-based SC-ISEs to construct a four-channel wearable potentiometric sensor for sweat electrolytes monitoring (Na⁺/K⁺/pH/Cl^-). The carbon fibers were extracted from commercial cloth, of which the starting point is addressing the cost and reproducibility issues for flexible SC-ISEs. The bare carbon fiber electrodes exhibited reversible voltammetric and stable impedance performances. Further fabricated SC-ISEs based on corresponding ion-selective membranes disclosed Nernstian sensitivity and anti-interface ability toward both ions and organic species in sweat. Significantly, these carbon fiber-based SC-ISEs revealed high reproducibility of standard potentials between normal and bending states. Finally, a textile-based sensor was integrated with a solid-contact reference electrode, which realized on-body sweat electrolytes analysis. The results displayed high accuracy compared with ex-situ tests by ion chromatography. This work highlights carbon fiber-based multichannel wearable potentiometric ion sensors with low cost, biocompatibility and reproducibility.

Keywords: Carbon fiber; Ion-selective electrodes; Solid-contact; Wearable sensor.