Advanced Nanomaterials for Bio-Monitoring

Biomedical and diagnostic detection/monitoring are of great importance to society, as these areas directly impact our daily lives. This need is prevalent in the workings of wearable biosensors, as the biosensor market is projected to be a $US 22.5 billion dollar industry by 2020. Hence, the development of sensors utilizing the often enhanced properties of nanoscale materials is at the forefront of wearable analytical chemistry. Nanoscience presents an almost endless amount of novel materials, as their properties differ from their bulk counterparts. Many of the interactions with these nanomaterials remain unexplored, leaving a need for investigation. Both the structure and the materials should be soft and mechanically robust enough to bend, stretch, fold, and twist in response to the motion of the wearer. Here, electrospun polymer fibers have been used as wearable sensors, and further functionalized with a wide loading range of carbon nanomaterials via layer-by-layer and vacuum techniques to accommodate multiple analyte detection schemes in sweat. The data demonstrates the success of a nanocomposite sensor at monitoring in an accurate, selective, and reproducible manner. It is capable of outputting currents, at low voltages (<; 1 V), that can easily be read via a portable/wearable device, enhancing the sensor's attractiveness for wearable/flexible devices.