Graphene and Wearable Sensors

 


A study was published in Biosensors and Bioelectronics. It was part of the journal's highlight series, "Young Scientists in the Americas."

A team at the University of Hawaii at Manoa have discovered a new way to manufacture wearable health sensors, making them more affordable and accessible. Wearable sensors are critical in monitoring vital signs and other health issues. They can provide real-time health insights and personalized medical care. The production of these devices requires specialized technical expertise, which limits their accessibility.

A team was lead by Assistant Professor Tyler Ray in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology. They have introduced a low cost method for producing sensors. The sensors are made from a stencil-based technique and use laser-induced graphene (LIG). This is an important material used in the production of wearable sensing platforms. 

Ray states, "This advancement allows us to create high performance wearable sensors with greater precision and at a lower cost. By using a simple metal stencil during the laser patterning process, we've overcome a key limitation of the traditional fabrication process, which opens up new possibilities for sensor design and functionality."

The UH Manoa team used commercially available metal stencils. They were able to reduce the size from 120 micrometers to just 45 micrometers. Standard laser processing did not allow for the creation of a more complex sensor design, like fine-line micro array electrodes.

Ray explains, " We demonstrated the practicality of our method by fabricating temperature sensors and multi-electrode electrochemical sensors. These devices exhibited enhanced performance, which we attribute to the improved resolution and quality of the graphene patterns."

This new technique builds off of an older device Ray designed, named the "sweatainer." It was a 3D wearable swear sensor that collected and analyzed sweat for conditions like fatigue, dehydration and even diabetes. 

The LIG technique has huge potential for wearable health technologies! 

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