Towards smart personalized perspiration analysis: An IoT-integrated cellulose-based microfluidic wearable patch for smartphone fluorimetric multi-sensing of sweat biomarkers

• Published in: Biosensors & bioelectronics 2020-11, Vol.168, p.112450-112450, Article 112450
• Main Authors: Ardalan, Sina, Hosseinifard, Mohammad, Vosough, Maryam, Golmohammadi, Hamed
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Biomarkers; Biosensing Techniques; Cellulose; Humans; Internet of Things; Internet of Things (IoT); Microfluidics; Smartphone; Smartphone-based sensors; Sweat; Sweat biomarkers; Wearable Electronic Devices; Wearable sensors
• ISSN: 0956-5663; 1873-4235
• DOI: 10.1016/j.bios.2020.112450

Practical obstacles, such as intricate designs and expensive equipment/materials, in the fabrication of wearable sweat sensors, have limited their feasibility as a personalized healthcare device. Herein, we have fabricated a cellulose-based wearable patch, which further paired with a smartphone-based fluorescence imaging module and a self-developed smartphone app for non-invasive and in situ multi-sensing of sweat biomarkers including glucose, lactate, pH, chloride, and volume. The developed Smart Wearable Sweat Patch (SWSP) sensor comprises highly fluorescent sensing probes embedded in paper substrates, and microfluidic channels consisted of cotton threads to harvest sweat from the skin surface and to transport it to the paper-based sensing probes. The imaging module was fabricated by a 3D printer, equipped with UV-LED lamps and an optical filter to provide the in situ capability of capturing digital images of the sensors via a smartphone. A smartphone app was also designed to quantify the concentration of the biomarkers via a detection algorithm. Additionally, we have recommended an Internet of Things (IoT)-based model for our developed SWSP sensor to promote its potential application for the future. The field studies on human subjects were also conducted to investigate the feasibility of our developed SWSP sensor for the analysis of sweat biomarkers. Our findings convincingly demonstrated the applicability of our developed SWSP sensor as a smart, user-friendly, ultra-low-cost (~0.03 $ per sweat patch), portable, selective, rapid, and non-invasive healthcare monitoring device for immense applications in health personalization, sports performance monitoring, and medical diagnostics. [Display omitted] •A wearable patch comprised fluorescent probes in paper substrates, and cotton thread microfluidics was fabricated.•The wearable patch was paired with a smartphone-based fluorescence imaging module and a self-developed smartphone app.•The developed sensor was utilized for multi-sensing of sweat biomarkers including glucose, lactate, chloride, pH, and volume.•An Internet of Things (IoT)-based model was recommended to promote its future potential applications.•The results of field studies on human volunteers were comparable with previous reports.