A Core–Sheath Sensing Yarn‐Based Electrochemical Fabric System for Powerful Sweat Capture and Stable Sensing

Abstract

Wearable sweat sensing technologies have received wide attention for personalized health monitoring with continuous and molecular‐level insight in a noninvasive manner. However, it remains significantly challenging to simultaneously capture a sufficient volume of sweat and achieve stable contact between electrodes and sweat, especially in a relatively mild sweating condition. Herein, a wearable electrochemical fabric sensor is developed by embroidering diversified sensing yarns with a multi‐ply cotton sheath and carbon nanotube‐based sensing fiber core into a super‐hydrophobic fabric substrate. The device allows for sweat enrichment among the core–sheath sensing yarn and reduce ineffective diffusion, thus remarkably increasing the sweat capture efficiency. As a result, only 0.5 µL of sweat is needed to achieve stable circuit connectivity, 1/20 of the lowest volume reported to date. The device also maintains a highly durable sensing performance, obtained even during dynamic deformation processes such as bending, twisting, and shaking. It can be further designed into an integrated sports shirt system, which can perform real‐time monitoring of multiple chemical information (e.g., glucose, Na+, K+, and pH) of sweat for users at the states of both intense exercise conditions such as badminton and relatively mild conditions like walking and eating.

Electrochemical Detection of Femtomolar DNA via Boronate Affinity-Mediated Decoration of Polysaccharides with Electroactive Tags

“…As an important class of biological polymers, polysaccharides are renewable long-chain polymers composed of tens to thousands of monosaccharide units linked together by glycosidic bonds. Due to their excellent biodegradability and biocompatibility, polysaccharides (e.g., chitosan, alginic acid, pectin, and their derivatives) have attracted much research interest in a variety of fields, such as in drug delivery as carriers, , in implantable devices , and flexible electronic devices , as coating materials to improve the biocompatibility, and in biosensing as interface modification materials for the covalent immobilization of biological molecules, like DNAs, , enzymes, , and antibodies. , As the pendent functional groups (e.g., −NH 2 and −COOH) of the monosaccharide units are available for the covalent coupling, polysaccharides have also been used as mediators for the decoration of signal tags for amplified detection . Through dual amplification by alginic acid and glucose oxidase (GOx), for example, an electrochemiluminescence (ECL) method has been demonstrated by Zhang et al for amplified cytosensing and carbohydrate profiling because each alginic acid chain can be covalently decorated with multiple GOx.…”

Functional Fiber Materials to Smart Fiber Devices

“…Sensors could capture and translate targeted signals into other forms of easily observed or detected signals, and they are booming with the development of personalized digital devices in the Internet of Things era. ,, Generally, wearable sensors need to contact our bodies directly to provide accurate real-time physiological status and environmental information around humans. − While many sensors are designed in a planar configuration, fiber sensors also have been rapidly developed in the past decade. − The one-dimensional shape renders fiber sensors a few major advantages: (i) better flexibility to adapt to the human body for stable human–device interfaces, (ii) easier integration into textiles, (iii) easier implantation into deep tissues without causing traumatic damage to the tissue, and (iv) higher sensitivity for harvesting signals from all directions. Fiber sensors include physical (strain, light, electric signal, etc.)…”

Multifunctional Fiber‐Enabled Intelligent Health Agents

“…It can perform real-time monitoring of multiple chemical information (e.g., glucose, Na + , K + , and pH) of sweat for users at the states of both intense exercise conditions such as badminton and relatively mild conditions like walking and eating. [41] Daily monitoring and analysis of personal physiological data, aided by AI for medical care, can define healthier and smarter lifestyles. A non-printed integrated-circuit textile via a weaving method, with both wireless monitoring and logical computing capabilities for continuous on-body AI monitoring, was presented.…”