Graphene coated textile based highly flexible and washable sports bra for human health monitoring

Abstract

In this research work, graphene-based highly, conductive, flexible, washable, and breathable textile electrodes have been developed using the pad-dry-cure method. The results show that the electrical conductivity of the graphene-coated textile electrodes was significantly improved from 3.5 MΩ to 400 ± 5.0 kΩ for 12 padding passes. The deposition of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) polystyrene sulphonate (PEDOT:PSS) was acquired on reduced graphene oxide (rGO) coated substrate using layer by layer (LbL) technique. The resultant electrodes showed decreased sheet resistance from 150 to 50 kΩ for PEDOT:PSS with a low impedance of 40–150 Hz over the electric potential of 1.0 mV for the detection of high-quality electrocardiograms (ECG) and pulse rate response in different conditions such as rest, walking and running. Consequently, the effect of post-treatment was also analyzed using 5.0 wt% of ethylene glycol (EG) and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), respectively. The sheet resistance was further decreased from 40 kΩ to 130 ±0.5 Ω, which is appropriate for the detection of highly sensitive pulse rate response. The study demonstrates that the pad-dry-cure method can potentially be used for the development of graphene-coated wearable electronic textiles for biomedical and health monitoring devices.