Graphene Elastomer Electrodes for Medical Sensing Applications: Combining High Sensitivity, Low Noise and Excellent Skin Compatibility to Enable Continuous Medical Monitoring

Continuous monitoring of vital bio-signals is crucial to track the well-being of patients and to allow for timelymedical intervention in cases of emergency. This paper presents a compact and wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor using graphene-elastomer electrodes, which were characterised, first using an electronic patient simulator, then on a human subject. We demonstrate that the proposed electrodes are highly conductive, flexible and ultralight (weighing less than 10 mg). Their skin-impedance values are significantly lower than existing electrodes including other graphene-based sensors. In addition, we demonstrate that they can be applied on the skin in dry form without needing an intermediate gel layer, or excessivemechanical pressures, overcoming an important challenge for long term monitoring applications. The proposed configuration enables the design ofwearable devices that can outperformwell-refined commercial sensors, providing great potential for electronic/mobile health applications.

Automated summary

This paper introduces a compact and wearable electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor using graphene-elastomer electrodes, demonstrating high conductivity, flexibility, and ultralight weight. The proposed electrodes have lower skin impedance values compared to existing sensors and can be applied directly on dry skin without the need for excessive mechanical pressure or gel layers, showing great potential for electronic/mobile health applications.