Development of Fabric-Based Chemical Gas Sensors for Use as Wearable Electronic Noses

Abstract

Novel gas sensors embroidered into fabric substrates based on polymers/ SWNT-COOH nanocomposites were proposed in this paper, aiming for their use as a wearable electronic nose (e-nose). The fabric-based chemical gas sensors were fabricated by two main processes: drop coating and embroidery. Four potential polymers (PVC, cumene-PSMA, PSE and PVP)/functionalized-SWCNT sensing materials were deposited onto interdigitated electrodes previously prepared by embroidering conductive thread on a fabric substrate to make an optimal set of sensors. After preliminary trials of the obtained sensors, it was found that the sensors yielded a electrical resistance in the region of a few kilo-Ohms. The sensors were tested with various volatile compounds such as ammonium hydroxide, ethanol, pyridine, triethylamine, methanol and acetone, which are commonly found in the wastes released from the human body. These sensors were used to detect and discriminate between the body odors of different regions and exist in various forms such as the urine, armpit and exhaled breath odor. Based on a simple pattern recognition technique, we have shown that the proposed fabric-based chemical gas sensors can discriminate the human body odor from two persons.

Consumer Differences in the United States and India on Wearable Trackers

“…Overall, participants living in India were more likely than participants in the United States to prefer tracking all four attributes (p < .001). For people living in these conditions, tracking their physical and mental health conditions through wearable trackers could increase their selfawareness, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and decrease unnecessary travel to remote hospitals (Mercer et al, 2016;Seesaard et al, 2015). Although India will be the most populous country by 2022 (Riley, 2015), many people still live in rural areas where they must travel long distances to get medical care, and 36% of people live in poverty and cannot afford health care (Khandelwal, Jhingan, Ramesh, Gupta, & Srivastava, 2004).…”

“…Although India will be the most populous country by 2022 (Riley, 2015), many people still live in rural areas where they must travel long distances to get medical care, and 36% of people live in poverty and cannot afford health care (Khandelwal, Jhingan, Ramesh, Gupta, & Srivastava, 2004). For people living in these conditions, tracking their physical and mental health conditions through wearable trackers could increase their selfawareness, encourage a healthy lifestyle, and decrease unnecessary travel to remote hospitals (Mercer et al, 2016;Seesaard et al, 2015). Thus, people in India may be more interested in tracking their physical and mental health conditions and healthy lifestyle.…”

Electrically Conductive Coatings for Fiber-Based E-Textiles

“…Flexible fiber-based sensors have been suggested for monitoring various stimuli, including temperature [109], humidity [110], chemical levels [111], pressure [112,113], and strain [66,73]. Fiber-based sensing is advantageous when compared to film based sensors because fibers are lightweight materials with high aspect ratios.…”

Recent Advances in Printed Capacitive Sensors

“…Chemical sensors cover a wide range of devices that can potentially monitor electrolytes [114,115], metabolites [116,117], heavy metals [118,119], and gases [120,121]. In this section, we summarize the main contributions in the field of printed chemical capacitive sensors.…”