Facile and Low-Cost Fabrication of a Thread/Paper-Based Wearable System for Simultaneous Detection of Lactate and pH in Human Sweat

Gang Xiao; Jing He; Yan Qiao; Feng Wang; Qingyou Xia; Xin Wang; Ling Yu; Zhisong Lu; Chang-Ming Li

doi:10.1007/s42765-020-00046-8

Advanced Fiber Materials ›› 2020, Vol. 2 ›› Issue (5) : 265 -278. DOI: 10.1007/s42765-020-00046-8

Research Article

Facile and Low-Cost Fabrication of a Thread/Paper-Based Wearable System for Simultaneous Detection of Lactate and pH in Human Sweat

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¹Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, School of Materials and Energy, Southwest University, 1 Tiansheng Road, 400715, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

²State Key Laboratory of Silkworm Genome Biology, Southwest University, 1 Tiansheng Road, 400715, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

³Chongqing Engineering and Technology Research Center for Novel Silk Materials, Southwest University, 1 Tiansheng Road, 400715, Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

⁴College of Food Science, Southwest University, No. 2 Tiansheng Road, Beibei District, 400715, , Chongqing, People’s Republic of China

⁵Institute of Advanced Cross-Field Science, Qingdao University, 266071, Qingdao, People’s Republic of China

^g lingyu12@swu.edu.cn

^h zslu@swu.edu.cn

Gang Xiao

is currently studying for his PhD degree in Institute for Clean Energy & Advanced Materials, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. His research focuses on wetting phenomenon of biological materials and flexible wearable biosensors.

Jing He

obtained her master degree at Institute for Clean Energy & Advanced Materials, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China in 2019. Her research focuses on textile-based sweat analysis system.

Yan Qiao

is currently associate professor of the Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. She obtained her PhD degree in Bioengineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2010. Her research focuses on bioelectrochemistry and microbial fuel cells.

Feng Wang

is currently associate professor of College of Biotechnology in Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. He obtained his PhD degree from Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China in 2014. His research interests are silk materials-based biomedical devices.

Qingyou Xia

is currently professor of College of Biotechnology in Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. He obtained his PhD degree from Southwest Agricultural University, Chongqing, P. R. China in 1996. He conducted 3 years post-doctoral research at KYUSHU University, Japan. His main research interests are genomics and functional genomics of silkworm, silk fibers and silk-based materials.

Xin Wang

is studying for his master degree in College of Food Science, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. His research focuses on nanomaterials-based biosensors.

Ling Yu

is currently professor of the Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials, School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. She obtained her PhD degree in Bioengineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2009. She conducted 3 years post-doctoral research at University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, USA. Her research aims at exploring the advanced nanotechnologies and lab-on-a-chip systems for biomedical applications.

Zhisong Lu

received his PhD degree in school of chemical & biomedical engineering from Nanyang Technological University, Singapore in 2011, and is currently a professor in School of Materials & Energy, Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. Prof. Lu’s research expertise is in smart fibers and biosensors. With an h-index of 33 and total citation of 3400, he has co-authored more than 130 papers in refereed journals and has filed 11 patents.

Chang-Ming Li

is Professor and Dean of the Institute for Clean Energy and Advanced Materials in Southwest University, Chongqing, P. R. China. He worked with Motorola USA (1993–2003) as a distinguished technical member, Science Advisory Board Associate and senior manager. He was Professor, Head of Bioengineering Division and Director of Centre for Advanced Bionanosystems in Nanyang Technological University, Singapore (2003–2012). His main research interests are nanomaterials, green energies and biosensors/lab-on-a-chip systems.

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Abstract

Wearable devices have received tremendous interests in human sweat analysis in the past few years. However, the widely used polymeric substrates and the layer-by-layer stacking structures greatly influence the cost-efficiency, conformability and breathability of the devices, further hindering their practical applications. Herein, we report a facile and low-cost strategy for the fabrication of a skin-friendly thread/paper-based wearable system consisting of a sweat reservoir and a multi-sensing component for simultaneous in situ analysis of sweat pH and lactate. In the system, hydrophilic silk thread serves as the micro-channel to guide the liquid flow. Filter papers were functionalized to prepare colorimetric sensors for lactate and pH. The smartphone-based quantitative analysis shows that the sensors are sensitive and reliable. Although pH may interfere the lactate detection, the pH detected simultaneously could be employed to correct the measured data for the achievement of a precise lactate level. After being integrated with a hydrophobic arm guard, the system was successfully used for the on-body measurement of pH and lactate in the sweats secreted from the volunteers. This low-cost, easy-to-fabricate, light-weight and flexible thread/paper-based microfluidic sensing device may hold great potentials as a wearable system in human sweat analysis and point-of-care diagnostics.

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Gang Xiao, Jing He, Yan Qiao, Feng Wang, Qingyou Xia, Xin Wang, Ling Yu, Zhisong Lu, Chang-Ming Li. Facile and Low-Cost Fabrication of a Thread/Paper-Based Wearable System for Simultaneous Detection of Lactate and pH in Human Sweat. Advanced Fiber Materials, 2020, 2(5): 265-278 DOI:10.1007/s42765-020-00046-8