Study on Reusable Electrodes for Personal Electrocardiography

Abstract

Electrodes are an important part of electrocardiography (ECG); disposable electrodes have been extensively used. However, personal ECG monitoring devices for Internet of Things applications require reusable electrodes. As there have been no systematic studies on the characteristics of reusable electrodes to date, we conducted this study to assess the performance and feasibility of electrodes with different materials. We built reusable electrodes using twelve different metallic materials, including commonly used copper, silver, zinc, plating materials, chemically inert titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum. Each electrode was fabricated to a size of 5 × 10 mm. Their characteristics such as offset, baseline drift, stabilization time, and chemical inertness were compared. A personal ECG monitoring system was used to test the manufactured electrodes. The performances of the Ag, Cu, and Zn electrodes were better than the performances of other electrodes. However, these materials may not be used owing to the chemical changes that occur when the electrodes are in contact with the skin, such as discoloration and corrosion, which deteriorate their electrical characteristics. Titanium, stainless steel, and aluminum are chemically stable. The titanium electrode showed the best performance among the three, and it is our recommendation as a material for manufacturing reusable electrodes.