A Multifunctional Wearable Device with a Graphene/Silver Nanowire Nanocomposite for Highly Sensitive Strain Sensing and Drug Delivery

Abstract

Advances in wearable, highly sensitive and multifunctional strain sensors open up new opportunities for the development of wearable human interface devices for various applications such as health monitoring, smart robotics and wearable therapy. Herein, we present a simple and cost-effective method to fabricate a multifunctional strain sensor consisting of a skin-mountable dry adhesive substrate, a robust sensing component and a transdermal drug delivery system. The sensor has high piezoresisitivity to monitor real-time signals from finger bending to ulnar pulse. A transdermal drug delivery system consisting of polylactic-co-glycolic acid nanoparticles and a chitosan matrix is integrated into the sensor and is able to release the nanoparticles into the stratum corneum at a depth of ~60 µm. Our approach to the design of multifunctional strain sensors will lead to the development of cost-effective and well-integrated multifunctional wearable devices.