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Electronic tattoos based on large-area Mo2C grown by chemical vapor deposition for electrophysiology

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An Erratum to this article was published on 20 September 2023

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Abstract

Tattoo electronics has attracted intensive interest in recent years due to its comfortable wearing and imperceivable sensing, and has been broadly applied in wearable healthcare and human—machine interface. However, the tattoo electrodes are mostly composed of metal films and conductive polymers. Two-dimensional (2D) materials, which are superior in conductivity and stability, are barely studied for electronic tattoos. Herein, we reported a novel electronic tattoo based on large-area Mo2C film grown by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and applied it to accurately and imperceivably acquire on-body electrophysiological signals and interface with robotics. High-quality Mo2C film was obtained via optimizing the distribution of gas flow during CVD growth. According to the finite element simulation (FES), bottom surface of Cu foil covers more stable gas flow than the top surface, thus leading to more uniform Mo2C film. The resulting Mo2C film was transferred onto tattoo paper, showing a total thickness of ∼ 3 µm, sheet resistance of 60–150 Ω/sq, and skin-electrode impedance of ∼ 5 × 105 Ω. Such thin Mo2C electronic tattoo (MCET in short) can form conformal contact with skin and accurately record electrophysiological signals, including electromyography (EMG), electrocardiogram (ECG), and electrooculogram (EOG). These body signals collected by MCET can not only reflect the health status but also be transformed to control the robotics for human—machine interface.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 21903007, 22072006, and 22275022), Young Thousand Talents Program (No. 110532103), Beijing Normal University Startup funding (No. 312232102), Beijing Municipal Science & Technology Commission (No. Z191100000819002), and the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 310421109).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Beijing Key Laboratory of Energy Conversion and Storage Materials, College of Chemistry, Beijing Normal University, Beijing, 100875, China

    Shiyu Wang, Xin Wang, Weifeng Zhang, Xiaohu Shi, Dekui Song, Yan Zhang, Yan Zhao, Zihan Zhao & Nan Liu

  2. Beijing Graphene Institute, Beijing, 100094, China

    Nan Liu

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  1. Shiyu Wang
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  2. Xin Wang
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  3. Weifeng Zhang
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  4. Xiaohu Shi
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  6. Yan Zhang
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  7. Yan Zhao
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  8. Zihan Zhao
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Correspondence to Nan Liu.

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Wang, S., Wang, X., Zhang, W. et al. Electronic tattoos based on large-area Mo2C grown by chemical vapor deposition for electrophysiology. Nano Res. 16, 4100–4106 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12274-023-5423-y

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