Chemically Driven Printed Textile Sensors Based on Graphene and Carbon Nanotubes

Abstract

The unique properties of graphene, such as the high elasticity, mechanical strength, thermal conductivity, very high electrical conductivity and transparency, make them it an interesting material for stretchable electronic applications. In the work presented herein, the authors used graphene and carbon nanotubes to introduce chemical sensing properties into textile materials by means of a screen printing method. Carbon nanotubes and graphene pellets were dispersed in water and used as a printing paste in the screen printing process. Three printing paste compositions were prepared—0%, 1% and 3% graphene pellet content with a constant 3% carbon nanotube mass content. Commercially available materials were used in this process. As a substrate, a twill woven cotton fabric was utilized. It has been found that the addition of graphene to printing paste that contains carbon nanotubes significantly enhances the electrical conductivity and sensing properties of the final product.

Graphene-clad textile electrodes for electrocardiogram monitoring

“…Graphene has excellent electrical and thermal conductivity, displays high stiffness while being elastic which make it a favorable material for flexible electronics and wearable sensors [21][22][23]. To harness the unique properties of graphene and the advantages of textile-based materials in biosensing, we show the merger of the two through a simple and scalable fabrication process whereby M a n u s c r i p t 2 conductive textiles are formed using graphene as a cladding layer.…”

Flexible Graphene Electrodes for Prolonged Dynamic ECG Monitoring

“…Park proposed capacitive non-contact sensors based on printed-circuit board technology [15]. Graphene, the recently discovered two-dimensional (2D) carbon allotrope, has received considerable interest in many scientific fields because of its fascinating properties, which include excellent biocompatibility, superior electrical conductivity, high thermal conductivity, and extraordinary elasticity and stiffness [17,18,19,20,21]. Graphene is a highly promising material for use in the development of flexible electronics and wearable ECG sensors.…”

Graphene-based fabrics and their applications: a review

“…Taking advantage of their high surface area and conductivity, G coated fabrics/fibers have also been employed as sensors for different purposes: electrodes for heart rate monitoring [59], strain sensor [60], H2O2 sensor [61], glucose sensor [61], NO2 gas sensor [62], and acetone and methanol sensor [63].…”

“…Ethanol, ethylene, acetone, and CO2 gases in 10-fold concentrations did not cause interference in the NO2 determination. Skrzetuska et al [63] coated cotton fabrics with G pellets (23 nm of thickness, 68 G layers on average,) and MWCNTs by screen printing technique and the developed fabrics were employed as gas sensors. The change of the electrical resistance of the fabrics when exposed to different vapor gases was employed as an indication of the gas concentration.…”