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Chinese scientists have printed electronic sensors directly on human skin
Tatiana Matveeva, "Scientific Russia"
Wearable electronics, which can, for example, measure body temperature or the amount of oxygen in the blood, are becoming smaller and more accurate. In everyday life, we use fitness bracelets, thin flexible sensors that are attached to human skin have already appeared in medicine. Researchers from Harbin Polytechnic University (China) have moved even further: they have developed a safe way to print sensors directly on human skin. They described their development in detail in the journal ACS Applied Materials & Interfaces (Zhang et al., Wearable Circuits Sintered at Room Temperature Directly on the Skin Surface for Health Monitoring).
A drawing from the ACS Wearable circuits press release printed directly on human skin - VM.
Portable sensors of the latest generation consist of soft sensors and flexible printed circuit boards that read signals and transmit data to health workers. The metal elements of the sensor are usually connected by sintering, at a temperature of about 300 degrees Celsius. Such a temperature can damage human skin, so it was impossible to print sensors directly on the skin. However, the team of Lin Zhan from Harbin Polytechnic University was able to circumvent this limitation.
Scientists were able to reduce the sintering temperature to 40 degrees, which is almost not felt by our skin. They added a paste of polyvinyl alcohol and calcium carbonate nanoparticles to the material for the future sensor, which combine at room temperature and form a new layer. This auxiliary layer reduces the roughness of the surface and allows you to apply thin metal patterns that remain flexible. The scientists used water as a solvent – they removed it with a hair dryer.
The resulting sensor can also be applied to paper and fabric. It can measure temperature, blood oxygen level, heart rate, blood pressure and electrophysiological signals. "To reduce" a metal tattoo, the authors of the work note, is very simple: it can be washed off with hot water.
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