Flexible
temperature sensors with high resolution and good reliability
under deformation are a major research focus for wearable electronic
devices for skin temperature monitoring. In this study, a fiber-like
temperature sensor is fabricated by in situ growing poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene)
(PEDOT) on the surface of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) fiber.
The temperature sensor achieves a high sensitivity of 0.95%·°C–1 with a high linearity between 20
and 40 °C. Most importantly, the sensor achieves a high temperature
resolution of 0.2 °C. Due to its structure, the temperature-sensitive
fiber is easily embedded into textiles. By sewing the fiber into normal
textiles in an S-shape, the interference of strain can be nearly avoided,
even when the textile is stretched to 140%. Also, the obtained sensors
can monitor skin temperature during exercise, which demonstrates the
potential of the sensor’s application in healthcare and disease
diagnosis.
Currently, with the development of electronic skins (e-skins), wearable pressure sensors with low energy consumption and excellent wearability for long-term physiological signal monitoring are urgently desired but remain a challenge. Capacitive-type devices are desirable candidates for wearable applications, but traditional capacitive pressure sensors are limited by low capacitance and sensitivity. In this study, an all-nanofibrous ionic pressure sensor (IPS) is developed, and the formation of an electrical double layer at the electrode/electrolyte contact interface significantly enhances the capacitance and sensing properties. The IPS is fabricated by sandwiching a nanofibrous ionic gel sensing layer between two thermoplastic polyurethane nanofibrous membranes with graphene electrodes. The IPS has a high sensitivity of 217.5 kPa −1 in the pressure range of 0−5 kPa, which is much higher than that of conventional capacitive pressure sensors. Combined with the rapid response and recovery speed (30 and 60 ms), the IPS is suitable for real-time monitoring of multiple physiological signals. Moreover, the nanofiber network endows the IPS with excellent air permeability and heat dissipation, which guarantees comfort during long-term wearing. This work provides a viable strategy to improve the wearability of wearable sensors, which can promote healthcare and human−machine interaction applications.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) are becoming more and more popular all over the world. However, quality issues of TCM may lead to medical incidents in practice and therefore quality control is essential to TCM. In this review, the state of TCM in European Pharmacopoeia are compared with that in Chinese Pharmacopoeia, and herbal drugs that are not considered as TCM and not elaborated by TCM working party at European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines & Health Care (EDQM) but present in both European Pharmacopoeia and Chinese Pharmacopoeias are also discussed. Different aspects in quality control of TCM including origins, identification, tests and assays, as well as sample preparation, marker selection and TCM processing are covered to address the importance of establishing comprehensive quality standard of TCM. Furthermore, advanced analytical techniques for quality control and standard establishment of TCM are also reviewed.
Electronic supplementary material
The online version of this article (10.1186/s13020-020-00357-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
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