Dehydration is one of the most profound physiological challenges that significantly affects athletes and soldiers if not detected early. Recently, a few groups have focused on dehydration detection using sweat as the main biomarker. Although there are some proposed devices, the electrical and chemical characteristics of sweat have yet to be incorporated into the validations. In this work, we have developed a simple test setup to analyze artificial sweat that is comprised the main components of human sweat. We provide theoretical and experimental details on the electrical and chemical behavior of the artificial sweat for various concentration values within a temperature range of 5 °C to 50 °C. We have also developed an efficient sweat collecting and detection system based on 3D printing. Human studies were conducted and this particular protocol has shown that dehydration starts to take effect as early as 40 min into the physical activity if there is no fluid intake during the exercise. We believe that our device will lead to developing viable real-time sweat analysis systems.

We describe the use of HNQ (2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone or Lawsone) as a potential sweat sensor material to detect the hydration levels of human beings. We have conducted optical measurements using both artificial and human sweat to validate our approach. We have determined that the dominant compound that affects HNQ absorbance in artificial sweat is sodium. The presence of lactate decreases the reactivity of HNQ while urea promotes more interactions of sodium and potassium ions with HNQ. The interactions between the hydroxyl group of HNQ and the artificial sweat components (salts, lactic acid, and urea) were investigated comprehensively. We have also proposed and developed a portable diode laser absorption sensor system that converts the absorbance at a particular wavelength range (at 455 ± 5 nm, where HNQ has an absorbance peak) into light intensity measurements via a photocell. The absorbance intensity values obtained from our portable sensor system agrees within 10.4% with measurements from a laboratory based ultraviolet-visible spectrometer. Findings of this research will provide significant information for researchers who are focusing on real-time, in-situ hydration level detection.

We describe the use of 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (HNQ, Lawsone) as a potential sweat electrolyte measurement marker. We use ultraviolet-visible absorbance measurements to determine the absorbance energy in a particular wavelength range (400 nm–500 nm). This novel approach allows us to eliminate the importance of the exact wavelength of the absorbance peak but find the integral of the range of interest. Although we numerically calculate the absorbance energy, it is imperative to use photodiodes to measure the intensity of the transmitted light that is fabricated particularly for the range of interest for future device implementations. We explored various mixing ratios of water and acetone to find the optimum solvent that would give the most sensitive and accurate relative electrolyte sensing. The pH value was also modified to see the effect on the absorbance energy and intensity. A representative group of subjects were used to collect sweat from the dehydration and hyperhydration cases. The results are convincing that HNQ solutions can be used as a wearable, continuous sweat sensor.

We describe the use of 2-hydroxy-1,4-naphthoquinone (HNQ) thin films as a potential water vapor and electrolyte sensing material towards the goal of non-invasive relative humidity and sweat detection. We have successfully made HNQ sol-gel thin films and studied the effects of sodium and potassium ions on their optical and electrical characteristics. Ultraviolet-visible absorbance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy measurements along with scanning electron microscopy demonstrated that we were able to dope HNQ thin films with Na+ and K+ ions, which are the main electrolyte contents in sweat. While the conductivity of thin films increased by at least an order of magnitude, energy band gaps decreased by doping HNQ with Na+ and K+ ions. Relative humidity test results showed that HNQ-based thin-films can be used as a sensing material for water vapor. Room temperature current-voltage measurements were also performed to determine the surface conductivity.

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