Stretchable gold fiber-based wearable electrochemical sensor toward pH monitoring

J Mater Chem B. 2020 Apr 29;8(16):3655-3660. doi: 10.1039/c9tb02477h.

Abstract

Sweat pH is a key health indicator related to metabolism and homeostasis level through hydrogen ion concentration in biological bio-fluid. Therefore, increasing research efforts have been directed to develop wearable pH sensors towards continuous non-invasive monitoring of sweat pH values in the out-of-hospital environments. Herein, we report a stretchable gold fiber-based electrochemical pH sensor based on our recently developed elastomer-bonded gold nanowire coating technology. The densely packed gold film offers superior strain-insensitive conductivity, high stretchability and large electrochemical active surface area (EASA). By electrodepositing polyamine (PANI) and Ag/AgCl onto the gold fibers, we could selectively detect the pH based on open circuit potentials in an ion-selective electrode design. The obtained fiber-based pH sensors feature a great sensitivity (60.6 mV per pH), high selectivity against cationic interference and high stretchability (up to 100% strain). One of the attributes for the fiber-based sensors is that they can be weaved into textiles, holding great potential for integration into everyday clothing for "unfeelable" personal health monitoring.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Biosensing Techniques*
  • Electrochemical Techniques*
  • Electrodes
  • Gold / chemistry*
  • Humans
  • Hydrogen-Ion Concentration
  • Nanoparticles / chemistry*
  • Particle Size
  • Silver / chemistry
  • Silver Compounds / chemistry
  • Surface Properties
  • Wearable Electronic Devices*

Substances

  • Silver Compounds
  • Silver
  • Gold
  • silver chloride