Abstract

The advancement in smart materials allows researchers to seek smart textiles for wearable health monitoring. Here, a washable and flexible textile-based dry electroencephalography (EEG) electrode that can detect brain activities has been developed. The EEG electrodes were constructed from an electrically conductive cotton fabric with <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$67.23~\Omega $ </tex-math></inline-formula> /sq produced through printing PEDOT:PSS/PDMS conductive polymer composite on cotton fabric via screen printing. The mechanical properties like flexural rigidity and tensile strength of the conductive fabric were compared against the bare base material and a PEDOT:PSS-printed fabric. The result from an SEM revealed a uniform printing of the PEDOT:PSS/PDMS on the fabric. The signal-to-noise ratio of the textrode was higher than the Ag/AgCl dry electrode i.e. 17.32 (+3.1%) which open the door for long-term EEG monitoring. Moreover, the electrode can give clear and reliable EEG signals up to 15 washing cycles, 60 bending cycles, 5 multiple uses, and 8 hours of continued use.

Highlights

  • T HE use of smart textiles for health monitoring is a booming business

  • The one-way ANOVA at a 95% confidence interval (CI) showed the skin-to-electrode contact impedance of the textrode and Ag/AgCl dry electrode is significantly different after three minutes providing an f-ratio value of 20.97 and p-value of

  • The EEG signals recorded by the textrode were comparable to Ag/AgCl dry electrode

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Summary

INTRODUCTION

T HE use of smart textiles for health monitoring is a booming business. To make it more user-friendly, it is important to develop e-textile-based bio-potential sensors for active control of your health without compromising the comfort and bulk property of the textile. Some researches on textile-based dry electrodes have been reported: a passive electrode based on porous titanium (Ti) and PDMS for long term EEG recording [6]; a porous ceramic-based ‘semi-dry’ electrode that has tips that can slowly and continuously release a tiny amount of electrolyte liquid to the scalp, which provides an ionic conducting path for detecting neural signals [7]; wearable, less visible ear-EEG recording [8]; copper plate fabric textile EEG electrode that can give similar signals as commercially available EEG [9]; knitted soft textile electrodes for EEG Monitoring made from nylon, conductive fibers, Spandex and polypropylene [10]; a textile electrode using electrically conductive polyurethane (PU) foam developed through a coating of inherently conductive polyaniline (PANI) polymer on PU foam [11] and a 3D printed dry electrode made by an insulating acrylic-based photopolymer [12] All these works reported that the signals acquired were comparable to the standard wet EEG electrodes. A high-conductivity grade PEDOT:PSS PH1000 Clevious conductive polymer obtained from (Ossila Ltd., UK) and a biocompatible Poly(Dimethylsiloxane (PDMS) elastomer obtained from (Polyscience, Inc., UK) were used to produce a conductive polymer composite. 1,2,3,4-Butanetetracarboxylic acid (BTCA) obtained from (Sigma-Aldrich, Inc, Germany) was used as a fixing agent to improve wash fastness

Conductive Fabric Development
Conductive Fabric Characterization
Mechanical Property Analysis
Electrical Property Analysis
EEG Signal Analysis Against Standard Electrodes
Effect of Multiple and Continuous Use on EEG Signal Quality
Findings
CONCLUSION

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