Development of wearable textile-based moisture sensor for smart diaper applications and examination of its comfort properties

Abstract

Urinary incontinence stands as a prevalent challenge encountered among elderly and sick individuals, necessitating the use of diapers for management. Despite existing systems that offer indicators for timely diaper changes upon wetness detection, there remains a demand for the development of wearable, facilely manufacturable, and unobtrusive solutions. Thus, this study presents the fabrication of wearable and flexible moisture sensors utilizing a pad printing technique employing silver and silver/nickel inks. Varied sintering processes with differing pass numbers were employed in sensor fabrication, subsequently subjecting them to evaluation for conductivity and surface morphology. Further, controlled applications of distilled water and artificial urine solutions were administered onto sensors integrated diapers to simulate urinary incontinence scenarios. When the sensors were exposed to the artificial urine solution, sensors’ resistance changes were more noticeable according to the water. Comparative analyses revealed that 5 pass silver sensor exhibited superior performance relative to other sensor configurations investigated. Ultimately, through physical testing, a comparative assessment between sensorless and sensor-integrated diapers was conducted, with findings indicating the promising potential of sensor-integrated diapers in enhancing user comfort and usability.