Functional Laser Induced Graphene from natural bio-plastics (bio-LIG), sustainable composites for non-invasive wearable sweat sensor platforms

Wearable sensors have the potential to revolutionise traditional health and wellbeing diagnostics by enabling personal healthcare monitoring everywhere and anytime.

However, the increased demand, ubiquity and the inherent disposable nature of wearable sensors poses serious environmental concerns both in terms of high energy production requirements and end-of-life disposal.

These concerns mandate urgent development of “green” materials and processes to ensure future sustainability of the wearable sensor sector.

The project proposes a simple one-step, scalable approach for producing and patterning porous graphene films with three-dimensional networks from chitosan using laser writing technique (bio-LIG).

SusBioLIG will start with investigation of the bio-LIG process to find the chemico-physical mechanism enabling LIG formation on chitosan.

The effect of laser irradiation parameters, the percentages of individual components will be investigate in order to optimize standard formulation morphology and electrical conductivity. Obtained composites will be assessed by electrical characterisation and spectroscopic techniques.

Finally, Bio-LIG electrode arrays will be designed and fabricated will be characterized by scanning electron microscopy, cyclic voltammetry and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy.

Label free electrode and functionalized electrodes by GOx and LOx will be used as sensing platforms for uric acid, glucose and lactate respectively.

Direct electron transfer and or Prussian blue mediated electron transfer studies will be carried out for glucose and lactate.

After electrochemical (e.g. cyclic voltammetry, differential pulse voltammetry and chronoamperometry) behavior studies of targeted biomarkers at electrode array platforms, affecting parameters will be optimized.

Then, simultaneous detection of targeted biomarkers in an artificial sweat sample will be performed and figures of merit for each biomarkers will be obtained and compared.