Printing Biosensors Directly on Skin
Several wearables for sensing blood oxygen, heart rate and temperature exist, but engineers at Penn State and in China have collaborated to produce electrically conductive sensors that can be printed directly on skin. “High temperature sintering is normally required to bond silver nanoparticles together into flexible electronic components. At 572 degrees Fahrenheit (300 Celsius), this cannot be safely performed directly on the skin. To overcome this, this research team set off looking for a sintering layer, which would lower the required temperature for sintering the silver nanoparticles. They developed a sintering layer, consisting of a commonly used polyvinyl alcohol paste and calcium carbonate, that lets the nanoparticles bond at room temperature.” The printed devices can simply peel off in the shower, though they are reusable. MORE
Image Credit: Penn State and MedGadget.com