Synergetic Monitoring of both Physiological Pressure and Epidermal Biopotential Based on a Simplified on-Skin-Printed Sensor Modality

Abstract

Flexible electronic sensors show great potential for health monitoring but are usually limited to single sensing functionality. To enrich their functions, complicated device configurations, sophisticated material systems, and preparation processes are typically involved, obstructing their large-scale deployment and widespread application. Herein, to achieve a good balance between simplicity and multifunctionality, a new paradigm of sensor modality for both mechanical sensing and bioelectrical sensing is presented based on a single material system and a simple solution processing approach. The whole multifunctional sensors are constructed with a pair of highly conductive ultrathin electrodes (WPU/MXene-1) and an elastic micro-structured mechanical sensing layer (WPU/MXene-2), with the human skin serving as the substrate for the whole sensors. The resultant sensors show high pressure sensitivity and low skin-electrode interfacial impedance, enabling to synergetically monitor both physiological pressure (e.g., arterial pulse signals) and epidermal bioelectrical signals (including electrocardiograph and electromyography). The universality and extensibility of this methodology to construct multifunctional sensors with different material systems are also verified. This simplified sensor modality with enhanced multifunctionality provides a novel design concept to construct future smart wearables for health monitoring and medical diagnosis.