Wearable Fluid Capture Devices for Electrochemical Sensing of Sweat

ACS Appl Mater Interfaces. 2019 Jan 9;11(1):238-243. doi: 10.1021/acsami.8b17419. Epub 2018 Dec 17.

Abstract

Wearable sensing technologies are vital for realizing personalized health monitoring. Noninvasive human sweat sampling is essential for monitoring an individual's physical state using rich physiological data. However, existing wearable sensing technologies lack the controlled capture of body sweat and in performing on-device measurement without inflammatory contact. Herein, we report the development of a wearable sweat-capture device using patterned graphene arrays with controlled superwettability and electrical conductivity for simultaneously capturing and electrochemically measuring sweat droplets. The sweat droplets exhibited strong attachment on the superhydrophilic graphene patterns, even during moderate exercising. The captured sweat droplets present strong electrochemical signals using graphene films as the working electrode and metal pins as the counter electrode arrays assembled on 3D printed holders, at the detection limit of 6 μM for H2O2 sensing. This research enables full-body spatiotemporal mapping of sweat, which is beneficial for a broad range of personalized monitoring applications, such as drug abuse detection, athletics performance optimization, and physiological wellness tracking.

Keywords: electrochemical sensing; graphene; laser scribing; superhydrophobic; sweat capture.

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques* / instrumentation
  • Biosensing Techniques* / methods
  • Electrodes
  • Exercise
  • Graphite / chemistry
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen Peroxide / analysis*
  • Hydrogen Peroxide / metabolism
  • Limit of Detection
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / instrumentation
  • Monitoring, Physiologic / methods
  • Substance Abuse Detection / instrumentation
  • Substance Abuse Detection / methods
  • Sweat / metabolism*
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*

Substances

  • Graphite
  • Hydrogen Peroxide