Bioinspired Composite Microfibers for Skin Adhesion and Signal Amplification of Wearable Sensors. Issue 28 (19th May 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Drotlef, Dirk‐M.; Amjadi, Morteza; Yunusa, Muhammad; Sitti, Metin
• Is Part Of: Advanced materials. Volume 29:Issue 28(2017)
• Page Start: n/a
• Page End: n/a
• Publication Date: 2017-05-19
• Subjects: gecko‐inspired adhesives -- microfibers -- skin adhesives -- strain sensors -- wearable sensors; Materials -- Periodicals; Chemical vapor deposition -- Periodicals; 620.11
• DOI: 10.1002/adma.201701353
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0935-9648

Abstract

Abstract : A facile approach is proposed for superior conformation and adhesion of wearable sensors to dry and wet skin. Bioinspired skin‐adhesive films are composed of elastomeric microfibers decorated with conformal and mushroom‐shaped vinylsiloxane tips. Strong skin adhesion is achieved by crosslinking the viscous vinylsiloxane tips directly on the skin surface. Furthermore, composite microfibrillar adhesive films possess a high adhesion strength of 18 kPa due to the excellent shape adaptation of the vinylsiloxane tips to the multiscale roughness of the skin. As a utility of the skin‐adhesive films in wearable‐device applications, they are integrated with wearable strain sensors for respiratory and heart‐rate monitoring. The signal‐to‐noise ratio of the strain sensor is significantly improved to 59.7 because of the considerable signal amplification of microfibrillar skin‐adhesive films. Abstract : Strong adhesion of wearable sensors to dry and wet skin is proposed by a novel approach. Micropatterned adhesive films are composed of microfibers decorated with mushroom‐shaped vinylsiloxane tips. Crosslinking the viscous tips directly on the skin significantly enhances the adhesion performance due to their great shape adaptation, which in turn highly increases the output signal quality of wearable strain sensors.