A multifunctional wearable sensor based on a graphene/inverse opal cellulose film for simultaneous, <i>in situ</i> monitoring of human motion and sweat

Abstract

A multifunctional, wearable sensor based on a reduced oxide graphene (rGO) film onto a porous inverse opal acetylcellulose (IOAC) film has been developed and can perform simultaneous, in situ monitoring of various human motions and ion concentrations in sweat. The rGO film is used as a strain-sensing layer for monitoring human motion via its resistance change, whereas the porous IOAC film is used as a flexible microstructured substrate not only for high sensitive motion sensing, but also for collection and analysis of ion concentrations in sweat by its simple colorimetric changes or reflection-peak shifts. Studies on humans demonstrated that the devices have excellent capability for monitoring various human motions, such as finger bending motion, wrist bending motion, head rotation motion and various small-scale motions of the throat. Simultaneous, in situ analysis of the ion concentration in sweat during these motions shows that the IOAC substrate can detect a wide range of NaCl concentrations in sweat from normal 30 to 680 mM under the conditions of severe dehydration. This investigation provides new horizons toward the design and fabrication of multifunctional, wearable health monitoring devices and the proposed wearable sensor shows promising applications in healthcare and preventive medicine.