Strain-insensitive and multiplexed potentiometric ion sensors via printed PMMA molecular layer

Abstract

Wearable biomimetic electronics have aroused tremendous attention due to their capability to continuously detect and deliver real-time dynamic physiological signals pertaining to the wearer's environment. However, upon close contact with the human skins, a wearable sensor undergoes mechanical strain which inevitably degrades the electrical performance. To address this issue, we demonstrate a universal design approach for stretchable and multiplexed biosensors that can yield unaltered ion sensing performance under variable mechanical tensile strains, which is achieved by introducing a PMMA molecular layer between stretchable substrate and ion sensors. Such design demonstrates reliable multiplexed ion sensing capability and provides high sensitivity (>50 mV/decade), reliable selectivity, as well as wide working range (0.1–100 mM) for sodium, ammonium, potassium and calcium ions in complex sweat biomarkers. Via this introduced PMMA molecular layer, our sensor even exhibits 95 % electrical performance maintained up to 30 % tensile strain, whereas the mechanical tensile property is far superior to original sensor performance. Besides, the sensors were also utilized for real-time monitoring of ions in sweat to validate its biomedical electronics applications. This sensing platform can be easily extended to other biomimetic sensors to enable stable signal acquisition for biomedical electronics.