Weaving Off-The-Shelf Yarns into Textile Micro Total Analysis Systems (μTAS)

Area of Science:

• Textile Engineering
• Biosensor Technology
• Materials Science

Background:

• Textile-based biosensors offer potential for integration into wearable devices like clothing and bandages.
• Existing methods often rely on specialized yarns or complex modifications unsuitable for large-scale manufacturing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop woven textile diagnostic devices using readily available, unmodified commercial yarns.
• To characterize yarn properties crucial for biosensor functionality.
• To establish the feasibility of using off-the-shelf yarns for scalable biosensor production.

Main Methods:

• Characterization of wicking ability and analyte retention of Coolmax yarns.
• Investigation of electrochemical properties and functionalizability of gold-coated multifilament yarns.
• Fabrication of woven capillary-driven microfluidic and three-electrode sensing devices.
• Development of a proof-of-principle glucose detection system in human sweat.

Main Results:

• Commercial yarns were successfully used without cleaning or modification to create functional biosensor components.
• Gold-coated yarns exhibited comparable thiolate self-assembled monolayer coverage to cleaned electrodes.
• The developed three-electrode system accurately detected clinically relevant glucose concentrations in human sweat.

Conclusions:

• Commercially available textile yarns can be directly utilized to fabricate effective woven biosensing devices.
• This approach simplifies manufacturing and enables the scalable production of wearable diagnostic textiles.
• The developed technology holds promise for point-of-care diagnostics and personalized health monitoring.