Intrinsically stretchable jellyfish-like gold nanowires film as multifunctional wearable chemical and physical sensors

Abstract

We report on an intrinsically stretchable jellyfish-like gold nanowires film as a multifunctional wearable platform that can detect both chemical and physical biometrics. The film inherently exhibits multifunctionality, serving directly as an electrochemical electrode, strain sensor, temperature sensor, pressure sensor, and noncontact humidity sensor without the need of any additional materials. Our results highlight the excellent electrochemical properties, evidenced by a large electrochemical active surface area (EASA) of approximately 22.39 cm2 and the ability to withstand significant strain values up to 70 %. Leveraging these attributes, a stretchable electrochemical glucose biosensor was further designed with high sensitivity (45.40μA·mM−1·cm−2) and low limit of detection (10 μM). In addition, its sensing applications in strain, temperature, pressure and noncontact humidity were systematically explored. Impressively, the gold film is capable of monitoring multiple human motions and physiological signals, including joints bending, pulse motions, throat motions (e.g., drinking, speaking, swallowing and pronunciation recognition) and breathing. Furthermore, the film exhibited great versatility by integrating with 3D printing hydrogels, enabling customized patterning. The results demonstrate that our gold nanowires coating approach represent a new route to design multimodal soft wearable platforms for applications in personalized medicine and next-generation healthcare systems.