Laser-Induced Textile-Based Graphene for Epidermal Sensor Development

Epidermal sensors can offer continuous and noninvasive measurement of health indicators from the human body, therefore playing an increasingly important role in modern healthcare and human-machine interactions. In particular, soft and lightweight textile-based sensors can closely conform to the human epidermis, enhancing monitoring capability while improving wearing comfort. In the development of epidermal textile-based sensors, nanomaterials are widely used to augment sensing functionalities. However, the existing methods for incorporating nanomaterials into textile-based sensors typically involve different procedures for preparing, transferring, and patterning nanomaterials to customize sensing structures. Here we show that a laser-based approach can be utilized to convert textiles into 3-D graphenic sensing structures, achieving both in situ induction and facile customization. The material properties and microscale/nanoscale morphologies of laser-induced textile-based graphene were characterized, revealing the effect of varying laser power. Further, the electrical and mechanical characteristics of textile-based graphene were examined, laying the foundation for choosing appropriate lasing parameters to meet the requirements in epidermal sensing. To demonstrate the sensing potential of laser-induced textile-based graphene, epidermal sensors for measuring electrophysiological signals and humidity were developed respectively, and their performance was tuned with laser power. The presented approach may facilitate the generation of textile-based sensing devices for various epidermal monitoring applications.