Anti-fatigue ionic gels for long-term multimodal respiratory abnormality monitoring

Abstract

Wearable electronics integrated with stretchable sensors are considered a promising and non-invasive strategy to monitor respiratory status for health assessment. However, long-term and stable monitoring of respiratory abnormality is still a grand challenge. Here, we report a facile one-step thermal stretching strategy to fabricate an anti-fatigue ionic gel (AIG) sensor with high fatigue threshold (Γ0 = 1130 J m–2), high stability (> 20,000 cycles), high linear sensitivity, and recyclability. A multimodal wearable respiratory monitoring system (WRMS) developed with AIG sensors can continuously measure respiratory abnormality (single-sensor mode) and compliance (multi-sensor mode) by monitoring the movement of the ribcage and abdomen in a long-term manner. For single-sensor mode, the respiratory frequency (Fr), respiratory energy (Er), and inspire/expire time (I/E ratio) can be extracted to evaluate the respiratory status during sitting, sporting, and sleeping. Further, the multi-sensors mode is developed to evaluate patient-ventilator asynchrony through validated clinical criteria by monitoring the incongruous movement of the chest and abdomen, which shows great potential for both daily home care and clinical applications.