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

• Published in: Chemical engineering journal (Lausanne, Switzerland : 1996) Switzerland : 1996), 2024-06, Vol.490, p.151798, Article 151798
• Main Authors: Zhang, Heng, Lin, Fenge, Chen, Gangsheng, Yang, Cheng, Zhang, Hanqiang, Yan, Mengwen, Li, Heng, Wang, Xi, Cheng, Wenlong, Chen, Yi
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Electrochemical electrode; Flexible/stretchable electronics; Gold nanowires film; Human health monitoring; Multifunctional wearables
• ISSN: 1385-8947
• DOI: 10.1016/j.cej.2024.151798

•Intrinsically stretchable jellyfish-like gold nanowire film: a versatile wearable platform for simultaneous detection of chemical and physical biometrics.•Multifunctional wearable: Electrochemical electrodes, strain, temperature, pressure, and noncontact humidity sensors.•Versatile monitoring: Effectively tracks diverse human motions and physiological signals.•Adaptable integration: 3D printing hydrogels enable customized patterning and collaboration with other disruptive wearable technologies for remote health monitoring anytime, anywhere. 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.