Electrospun Rubber Nanofiber Web-Based Dry Electrodes for Biopotential Monitoring

Abstract

This study aims to find base materials for dry electrode fabrication with high accuracy and without reducing electrode performance for long-term bioelectric potential monitoring after electroless silver plating. Most applications of dry electrodes that have been developed in the past few decades are restricted by low accuracy compared to commercial Ag/AgCl gel electrodes, as in our previous study of PVDF-based dry electrodes. In a recent study, however, nanoweb-based chlorinated polyisoprene (CPI) and poly(styrene-b-butadiene-b-styrene) (SBS) rubber were selected as promising candidates due to their excellent elastic properties, as well as their nanofibril nature, which may improve electrode durability and skin contact. The electroless silver plating technique was employed to coat the nanofiber web with silver, and silver nanoweb(AgNW)-based dry electrodes were fabricated. The key electrode properties (contact impedance, step response, and noise characteristics) for AgNW dry electrodes were investigated thoroughly using agar phantoms. The dry electrodes were subsequently tested on human subjects to establish their realistic performance in terms of ECG, EMG monitoring, and electrical impedance tomography (EIT) measurements. The experimental results demonstrated that the AgNW dry electrodes, particularly the SBS-AgNW dry electrodes, performed similarly to commercial Ag/AgCl gel electrodes and were outperformed in terms of long-term stability.

Design, Fabrication, and Evaluation of 3D Biopotential Electrodes and Intelligent Garment System for Sports Monitoring

“…These pressures are reflective of those used in medical-grade compression socks and provide a significant point of reference for evaluating compression garments. Skin phantoms made from agar have been widely used in the literature to evaluate the performance of biopotential electrode designs [39][40][41]. However, the existing phantoms have only been shown to be suitable for simulating the electrical characteristics of deeper tissue layers, such as the dermis and hypodermis, in a higher frequency range.…”