A disposable, wearable, flexible, stitched textile electrochemical biosensing platform

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Biomedical Engineering
• Analytical Chemistry

Background:

• Wearable sensing systems, exemplified by smartwatches, are in high demand.
• Current wearable sensors are often expensive, bulky, and designed for long-term use.
• There is a significant need for low-cost, disposable wearable sensors for single-use biomarker detection.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a cost-effective and disposable wearable sensor platform using conductive threads stitched into fabrics.
• To demonstrate the feasibility of functionalizing these textile sensors for biomarker detection.
• To evaluate the performance of these sensors for continuous glucose monitoring in human sweat.

Main Methods:

• Conductive gold-coated threads were stitched into fabrics to create a textile sensing platform.
• Thiolate self-assembled monolayers were used to functionalize the sensor threads for biomarker recognition.
• A continuous glucose sensing system was integrated as a proof of principle.
• The electrochemical performance and glucose detection capabilities in human sweat were assessed.

Main Results:

• The developed wearable sensors are cheap (0.22 USD/sensor) and disposable.
• The all-textile sensing platform is stretchable with minimal impact on electrochemistry.
• The glucose sensing system detected glucose in human sweat across the clinically relevant range (0.1–0.6 mM).
• The sensors exhibited a sensitivity of 126 ± 14 nA/mM and a limit of detection of 301 ± 2 nM for glucose.

Conclusions:

• A novel, scalable, and cost-effective textile-based wearable sensor platform has been successfully developed.
• The functionalized sensors are suitable for detecting a broad range of biomarkers, including glucose in sweat.
• This technology holds significant promise for point-of-care sensing applications and personalized health monitoring.