Stretchable surface electromyography electrode array patch for tendon location and muscle injury prevention

• Published in: Nature communications 2023-10, Vol.14 (1), p.6494-6494, Article 6494
• Main Authors: Yang, Shuaijian, Cheng, Jinhao, Shang, Jin, Hang, Chen, Qi, Jie, Zhong, Leni, Rao, Qingyan, He, Lei, Liu, Chenqi, Ding, Li, Zhang, Mingming, Chakrabarty, Samit, Jiang, Xingyu
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: 147/135; 147/3; 639/166/985; 639/301/1005/1007; 639/301/923; 692/499; 9/10; Arrays; Electrodes; Electromyography; Humanities and Social Sciences; Injury prevention; Liquid metals; Monitoring; multidisciplinary; Muscles; Muscular fatigue; Polymers; Polyvinyl alcohol; Prevention; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Screen printing; Signal to noise ratio; Stretchability; Tannic acid; Tendons
• ISSN: 2041-1723; 2041-1723
• DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-42149-x

Surface electromyography (sEMG) can provide multiplexed information about muscle performance. If current sEMG electrodes are stretchable, arrayed, and able to be used multiple times, they would offer adequate high-quality data for continuous monitoring. The lack of these properties delays the widespread use of sEMG in clinics and in everyday life. Here, we address these constraints by design of an adhesive dry electrode using tannic acid, polyvinyl alcohol, and PEDOT:PSS (TPP). The TPP electrode offers superior stretchability (~200%) and adhesiveness (0.58 N/cm) compared to current electrodes, ensuring stable and long-term contact with the skin for recording (>20 dB; >5 days). In addition, we developed a metal-polymer electrode array patch (MEAP) comprising liquid metal (LM) circuits and TPP electrodes. The MEAP demonstrated better conformability than commercial arrays, resulting in higher signal-to-noise ratio and more stable recordings during muscle movements. Manufactured using scalable screen-printing, these MEAPs feature a completely stretchable material and array architecture, enabling real-time monitoring of muscle stress, fatigue, and tendon displacement. Their potential to reduce muscle and tendon injuries and enhance performance in daily exercise and professional sports holds great promise. Stretchable surface electromyography electrodes with high signal-to-noise ratios and stable recordings are challenging to develop. Here, Yang et al. design a gel-free metal-polymer electrode array patch for long-term continuous monitoring of tendon displacement and muscle stress for injury prevention.