The simple analytical monitoring system of health and disease status in a daily life draws great attention especially in the transdermal analysis of sweat avoiding the need for a blood draw. Present sweat monitoring technology remains, however, limited in a mostly experimental practice, relying on lab-based systems. Further, these approaches are unsuitable for actively monitoring sweats during dynamic fitness, athletic and army activities. Herein, I will present the study of skin-mountable, flexible, conformal microfluidic devices with integrated wireless communication electronics that allow collection and simple analytical analysis of sweat. The fabricated devices via soft-lithography offer advanced biocompatible mechanical capabilities affording firm skin adhesion and enabling in situ sweat collection via perspiration. Microfluidic channel designs satisfy sufficient stretchability, structure stability, and vapor permeability for epidermal sweat patch applications. The sweat patch permits determination of local sweat rate and volume and enables multiple analysis of the concentration of representative biomarkers in sweat—glucose, lactate, chloride, and pH via quantitative colorimetric analysis under dynamic conditions. Additionally, the flexible near-field communication electronics yields wireless transmission with a smartphone to utilize digital quantitative color analysis. Two human studies were conducted to demonstrate assessment of perspiration with the devices: temperature and humidity controlled mild indoor cycling; and real-world outdoor use during a long distance cycling race. Indeed, the epidermal microfluidics for sweat analysis yield information of sweat loss and rate in situ and demonstrates reliable chemical assessment of perspiration compared to traditional lab-based analysis.

Wearable epidermal microfluidic systems capable of capture, storage and colorimetric sensing of sweat

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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