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All-Fiber Integrated Thermoelectrically Powered Physiological Monitoring Biosensor

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Abstract

Advanced fabric electronics for long-term personal physiological monitoring, with a self-sufficient energy source, high integrity, sensitivity, wearing comfort, and homogeneous components are urgently desired. Instead of assembling a self-powered biosensor, comprising a variety of materials with different levels of hardness, and supplementing with a booster or energy storage device, herein, an all-fiber integrated thermoelectrically powered physiological monitoring device (FPMD), is proposed and evaluated for production at an industrial scale. For the first time, an organic electrochemical transistor (OECT) biosensor is enabled by thermoelectric fabrics (TEFs) adaptively, sustainably and steadily without any additional accessories. Moreover, both the OECT and TEFs are constructed using a cotton/poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene):poly(styrenesulfonate)/dimethylsulfoxide/(3-glycidyloxypropyl) trimethoxysilane (PDG) yarn, which is lightweight, robust (90° bending for 1000 cycles) and sweat-resistant (ΔR/R0 = 1.9%). A small temperature gradient (ΔT = 2.2 K) between the environment and the human body can drive the high-gain OECT (71.08 mS) with high fidelity, and a good signal to noise ratio. For practical applications, the on-body FPMD produced an enduring and steady output signal and demonstrated a linear monitoring region (sensitivity of 30.4 NCR (normalized current response)/dec, 10 nM ~ 50 µM) for glucose in artificial sweat with reliable performance regarding anti-interference and reproducibility. This device can be expanded to the monitoring of various biomarkers and provides a new strategy for constructing wearable, comfortable, highly integrated and self-powered biosensors.

Graphical abstract

An all fiber integrated thermoelectric powering-physiological monitoring device (FPMD) consisted of thermoelectric fabrics (TEFs) and fiber-assembled organic electrochemical transistor (FOECT) is constructed from a PDF/cotton yarn, which was lightweight, robust (90° bending for 1000 cycles), sweat-resist (ΔR/R0 = 1.9%) and highly conductive (247 S/cm). A FOECT gm reaching up to 71.08 mS was first reported which operated continuously and steadily under a small temperature gradient (ΔT = 2.2K).The FPMD showed excellent homogeneity and structural uniformity and the on-body applications (ΔT = 2.2K) demonstrate the FPMD is able to monitor glucose in the range of 10 nM ~ 50 µM (a sensitivity of 30.4 NCR/dec).

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The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China (U20A20257), the National Key Research and Development Program (2022YFB3805803), Science and Technology Innovation Project of Hubei Province of China (2021BAA067), Outstanding Youth Project of Natural Science Foundation of Hubei Province of China (2021CFA068), and Outstanding Young and Middle-aged Innovation Team of Hubei Province of China (T2021007). We also thank the WTU-Deakin joint PhD program, the Special Fund of Taishan Industry Leading Talents Project, the “Hubei International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Base of Intelligent Textile Materials & Application” and the “Wuhan Engineering Technology Research Center for Advanced Fibers” providing partial support for materials processing.

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Author notes

  1. Xing Qing and Huijun Chen have contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Textile Fiber and Products (Wuhan Textile University), Ministry of Education, Wuhan Textile University, Wuhan, 430200, China

    Xing Qing, Huijun Chen, Fanjia Zeng, Kangyu Jia, Qing Shu, Jianmei Wu, Huimin Xu, Mufang Li & Dong Wang

  2. Institute for Frontier Materials, Deakin University, Waurn Ponds, Geelong, VIC, 3216, Australia

    Xing Qing, Weiwei Lei & Dan Liu

  3. JC STEM, Lab of Sustainable Fibers and Textiles, School of Fashion and Textiles, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hung Hom, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Xungai Wang

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  1. Xing Qing
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Qing, X., Chen, H., Zeng, F. et al. All-Fiber Integrated Thermoelectrically Powered Physiological Monitoring Biosensor. Adv. Fiber Mater. 5, 1025–1036 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42765-023-00258-8

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