Impedance evaluation of textile electrodes for EEG measurements

Abstract

In this paper, we evaluated the impedance of textile electrodes for electroencephalography measurements. We compared the commercially available standard dry silver/silver chloride dry electrodes, copper-based, and silver-based textile electrodes by measuring impedance on the skin. First, on dry skin, the impedance range of the electrodes was 93–350 kΩ at 0 min; after 60 min, the range was 20–56 kΩ. The commercial electrode showed the lowest impedance of 20 kΩ, and the silver-based textile electrode showed the highest impedance of 56 kΩ in dry skin conditions after 60 min. When tap water was applied as an electrolyte, the impedance range was 13–15 kΩ at 0 min; after 60 min, the range was 17–22 kΩ for all three types of electrodes. In this case, the copper-based textile electrode showed the lowest impedance of 17 kΩ and the commercial electrode showed the highest impedance of 22 kΩ after 60 min. When saline water was applied as an electrolyte, at 0 min, the impedance range was 8–11 kΩ; after 60 min, the range became 11–12 kΩ for all three types of electrodes. Thus, all electrodes showed similar results. It was concluded that the copper-based textile electrodes were more suitable than the silver-based textile electrodes and comparable to commercial electrodes regarding impedance in all three skin conditions.