Silver Conductive Threads-Based Embroidered Electrodes on Textiles as Moisture Sensors for Fluid Detection in Biomedical Applications

Abstract

Wearable sensors have become part of our daily life for health monitoring. The detection of moisture content is critical for many applications. In the present research, textile-based embroidered sensors were developed that can be integrated with a bandage for wound management purposes. The sensor comprised an interdigitated electrode embroidered on a cotton substrate with silver-tech 150 and HC 12 threads, respectively, that have silver coated continuous filaments and 100% polyamide with silver-plated yarn. The said sensor is a capacitive sensor with some leakage. The change in the dielectric constant of the substrate as a result of moisture affects the value of capacitance and, thus, the admittance of the sensor. The moisture sensor’s operation is verified by measuring its admittance at 1 MHz and the change in moisture level (1–50) µL. It is observed that the sensitivity of both sensors is comparable. The identically fabricated sensors show similar response and sensitivity while wash test shows the stability of sensor after washing. The developed sensor is also able to detect the moisture caused by both artificial sweat and blood serum, which will be of value in developing new sensors tomorrow for smart wound-dressing applications.

Portable Heating and Temperature-Monitoring System with a Textile Heater Embroidered on the Facemask

“…When used as heaters embroidered to the facemask, the conductive threads are exposed to moisture and temperature changes. However, our recent study showed the suitability of conductive threads to be used as moisture sensors, with stable characteristics with moisture levels up to 50 μL of water, as well as artificial sweet and blood serum …”

“…However, our recent study showed the suitability of conductive threads to be used as moisture sensors, with stable characteristics with moisture levels up to 50 μL of water, as well as artificial sweet and blood serum. 31 Because of the fact that embroidery strikes a delicate balance between the top and bottom thread tensions, the conditions and appropriateness of the needle, the tension of the backing fabric on the embroidery field, and the overall fabric stability, an allowable tolerance of approximately ±0.2 mm was applied to all dimensions, as shown in Figure 2.…”

“…However, our recent study showed the suitability of conductive threads to be used as moisture sensors, with stable characteristics with moisture levels up to 50 μL of water, as well as artificial sweet and blood serum. 31 …”

Highly Scalable, Sensitive and Ultraflexible Graphene‐Based Wearable E‐Textiles Sensor for Bio‐Signal Detection

“…[34][35] Previous studies demonstrated the embroidery process of conductive yarns or wires to work as sensors and data conductors. [36][37][38][39] However, further work is necessary to investigate the potentiality of producing graphene-based yarns in a scalable quantity, and then integrate such electroconductive yarns into fabrics as wearable biosensors via simple embroidery technique.…”

Fibers/Textiles-Based Flexible Sweat Sensors: A Review

“…In addition to the single effect based on the change of resistance value, some sensors change the impedance value under the joint action of resistance and capacitance. As shown in Figure8b, Saima Qureshi et al137 used Silver-tech 150 to design a humidity sensor that can measure sweat. The sensor has an accuracy of 7.78 × 10 −7 mΩ −1 /μL and excellent washability.…”