Wearable Leather-Based Electronics for Respiration Monitoring

This article presents a leather-based respiration sensor based on the ionic conductivity change of leather, caused by humidity variation during breathing. Leather was applied as a flexible substrate due to its biocompatibility, hydroscopicity, porosity, and ionic conductivity. Printing method was employed to fabricate the sensor, which could convert human respiration to electrical signals. By combining the leather with silver nanowires (AgNWs), data about human respiration rate, respiration depth, and respiration pattern can be acquired easily through a noninvasive way. Such sensor could work tens of hours consecutively due to the unique properties of leather.