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Soft, Skin‐Interfaced Microfluidic Systems with Passive Galvanic Stopwatches for Precise Chronometric Sampling of Sweat
Author(s) -
Bandodkar Amay J.,
Choi Jungil,
Lee Stephen P.,
Jeang William J.,
Agyare Prophecy,
Gutruf Philipp,
Wang Siqing,
Sponenburg Rebecca A.,
Reeder Jonathan T.,
Schon Stephanie,
Ray Tyler R.,
Chen Shulin,
Mehta Sunita,
Ruiz Savanna,
Rogers John A.
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
advanced materials
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 10.707
H-Index - 527
eISSN - 1521-4095
pISSN - 0935-9648
DOI - 10.1002/adma.201902109
Subject(s) - microfluidics , sweat , electronics , materials science , computer science , nanotechnology , galvanic cell , engineering , electrical engineering , oceanography , metallurgy , geology
Comprehensive analysis of sweat chemistry provides noninvasive health monitoring capabilities that complement established biophysical measurements such as heart rate, blood oxygenation, and body temperature. Recent developments in skin‐integrated soft microfluidic systems address many challenges associated with standard technologies in sweat collection and analysis. However, recording of time‐dependent variations in sweat composition requires bulky electronic systems and power sources, thereby constraining form factor, cost, and modes of use. Here, presented are unconventional design concepts, materials, and device operation principles that address this challenge. Flexible galvanic cells embedded within skin‐interfaced microfluidics with passive valves serve as sweat‐activated “stopwatches” that record temporal information associated with collection of discrete microliter volumes of sweat. The result allows for precise measurements of dynamic sweat composition fluctuations using in situ or ex situ analytical techniques. Integrated electronics based on near‐field communication (NFC) protocols or docking stations equipped with standard electronic measurement tools provide means for extracting digital timing results from the stopwatches. Human subject studies of time‐stamped sweat samples by in situ colorimetric methods and ex situ techniques based on inductively coupled plasma mass spectroscopy (ICP‐MS) and chlorodimetry illustrate the ability to quantitatively capture time‐dynamic sweat chemistry in scenarios compatible with field use.