A low-cost and simple-fabricated epidermal sweat patch based on cut-and-paste manufacture

Continuous, non-invasive, and multi-parametric sensing of sweat is noted to be appealing to many applications such as personalized medicine, athletic performance, and military readiness. Microfluidic sensing patches are widely reported to perform sweat collection, transportation, and multi-parameters analysis; however, time-consuming and multi-step manufacturing process actually prevents the large-scale application. In this study, a cut-and-paste (CAP) method is devised to pattern and transfer polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) and polyethylene terephthalate (PET) film to fabricate the microfluidic patch. The bear like patch, composed of four polymer-based layer, are completely carved automatically within 2 min by the desktop cutting machine. The sweat glucose and lactate are monitored in real time with newly proposed wearable sweat patches. The concentration ratio between blood glucose and iontophoresis-induced sweat glucose was over 512.37 as calculated. And the latter lagged behind the former over 70 min about peak of concentration. Also, using the fabricated sensors, we have analyzed the levels of glucose and lactate and compared them in both exercise- and iontophoresis-induced sweat. These results indicate the CAP method has great potential for the microfluidic integrated wearable platforms with low-cost, versatility, and mechanically flexibility, which would promote the development of wearable sweat microfluidic devices and application in individualized health monitoring.

Automated summary

In this study, a cut-and-paste (CAP) method is developed to fabricate microfluidic patches for real-time monitoring of glucose and lactate in sweat. The CAP method allows for the quick and automated production of the patches, which have low-cost, versatility, and mechanical flexibility. The results of this study indicate the potential of the CAP method in the development of wearable sweat microfluidic devices for individualized health monitoring.