Category Archives: wearable electronics

Toronto’s ArtSci Salon and December 2025 events

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I received (via email) a November 25, 2025 notice from Toronto’s ArtSci Salon about some December 2025 art/science events (available online here) being held in Toronto, Note: Some links have been removed,

THE BODY ELECTRIC

Exhibition & Performances
December 5, 6 & 7th, 2025

at Charles Street Video,
76 Geary Ave, Toronto

Opening, reception and performances:
Friday, December 5th at 6pm,
performances start at 7pm.

Exhibition Open to Public:
Saturday, December 6th and Sunday, December 7th
from 12pm – 4pm. 

…

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s visionary poem “I Sing the Body Electric,” this exhibition reimagines the body as a network of electric impulses, voltages, and signals that both generate and transmit lived experiences. Body Electric brings together artists, researchers, performers, and technologists who explore the inner electrical life of the human body through biophysical sensing.

By capturing physiological signals such as brainwaves (EEG), heart rhythms (ECG), and muscle activity (EMG), the exhibition reveals the hidden languages of the body — not as metaphor, but as material, as data, as expression.

Body Electric features contributions from York University faculty, students, and international collaborators. The exhibition builds a living bridge between the past and the present, connecting analogue pioneers with today’s generative futures, and invites us to look into the future with an open and curious mind.

..

Biophysical Movement and Emotion as Computational Interfaces (bioMECI) Workshop 
Charles Street Video, 76 Geary Ave, Toronto
Free with registration (same workshop both days):

Workshop 1: December 13th, 10am–6pm register at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1934433134579

[or]

Workshop 2: December 14th, 10am–6pm register at:
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/1941956487129

This Workshop is a collaborative workshop centred on biophysical data, computational art, and performance. At the centre of this workshop is the biophysical sensing toolkit, called The Source (www.biomeci.com). The Source is a wearable device solution for full-spectrum biophysical sensing that integrates with commonly used software platforms, enabling its use in the maker and arts communities. Data gathered from The Source is analyzed using hardware and software tools that interface with popular platforms such as Arduino, Max/MSP, SuperCollider, Ableton Live, TouchDesigner, and Processing. The Source provides real-time access to signals from the brain, heart, muscles, skin and eyes and more. This modular system empowers artists to create responsive artworks that engage directly with the body’s inner states.

…

Here’s more about the exhibition and performances, from the Charles Street Video project webpage,

Inspired by Walt Whitman’s visionary poem “I Sing the Body Electric,” this exhibition …

Electricity governs life on Earth at every scale, from small molecular organisms to sophisticated evolved beings. In the human body, in particular, electricity presents itself as the firing of neurons, the pulse of the heart, the conductivity of the skin, and the flux of emotional states. This exhibition foregrounds electricity not only as a force of animation, but as a creative medium — a raw, natural element that artists can sense, shape, and translate. The electric medium is further carried into the technological domain as a means of instrumentation and expression of gathered data from the human body. Through interactive installations, performances, and sonic-visual systems, Body Electric invites audiences to witness how the body thinks, feels, and reacts beneath the surface. What emerges is a portrait of the human not as a fixed entity, but as an ever-changing field of affective and electrical relations.

…

About the artists

The programme will feature a series of interactive installations, including body-physiology sensing chairs originally conceptualized by artist Alan Macy, a retrospective of the work of artist, composer, and scholar David Rosenboom, and installations by artists from York University’s nD::StudioLab (https://www.ndstudiolab.com/), including Ilze Briede [Kavi], Kwame Kyei-Boateng, Kyle Duffield, Mark-David Hosale, Hrysovalanti Maheras, and Nava Waxman.

It will also include live performances, among them

a new work by composer Gene Coleman with violinist Amy Hillis from York’s Music Department;

a performance by The Global Organoid Orchestra (GOO); and a set by the live-coding collective The Endemics.

The Global Organoid Orchestra (GOO) includes:
*Mark-David Hosale and Ilze Briede [Kavi] in Toronto;
*Diarmid Flatley, Marcos Novak, Iason Paterakis, and Nefeli Manoudaki in Santa Barbara;
*and collaborators at the Kosik Neurobiology Lab, UC Santa Barbara (Ken Kosik, Director),
*along with Tjitse van der Molen and Eve Bodnia.

The Endemics consists of
*Ilze Briede [Kavi] and
*Hrysovalanti Maheras.

bioMECI: Biophysical Movement and Emotion as Computational Interface

You can find out more about bioMECI here and about the Body Electric’s bioMECI workshops here.

Cellulose-based carbon nanomaterials (C-BCN) derived from bamboo for an ultra-robust hydrogel

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A May 16, 2025 article on bioengineer.org announces a new hydrogel,

In the relentless quest to develop materials that combine flexibility, durability, and functionality, a novel breakthrough in hydrogel technology shines a promising light on the future of wearable electronics and soft robotics. Engineers and material scientists from Southwest Forestry University in China have synthesized an ultra-robust hydrogel utilizing bamboo cellulose-based carbon nanomaterials (C-BCN), a development that could set new standards in the performance of flexible devices.

…

A May 16, 2025 Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts press release on EurekAlert, which originated the article, delves further into the topic,

Hydrogels have long been recognized for their potential in various applications, including tissue engineering, drug delivery, and wearable electronics. However, traditional hydrogels often lack the mechanical strength and durability needed for demanding applications. Now, researchers from Southwest Forestry University in China have developed an innovative solution using bamboo cellulose-based carbon nanomaterials (C-BCN) to create an ultra-robust hydrogel with remarkable properties.

The study, published in the Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts, details the process of creating the hydrogel. The researchers treated bamboo fibers with phthalic anhydride and then carbonized them to produce C-BCN. These nanomaterials were integrated into an acrylamide precursor solution to synthesize a conductive hydrogel (PAM-C-BCN) with exceptional mechanical properties. The hydrogel exhibited a fracture strength of 363 kPa, an elongation of 2,254%, a fracture energy of 30 kJ/m², and a toughness of 3.04 MJ/m³. Additionally, the hydrogel demonstrated high adhesion (up to 7.5 kPa on pigskin) and conductivity (0.21 S/m).

The researchers found that the C-BCN significantly enhanced the mechanical resilience and energy dissipation capabilities of the hydrogel. The nanomaterials formed strong interfacial interactions with the polyacrylamide (PAM) matrix, creating a densely interpenetrated network. This structure not only improved the hydrogel’s mechanical properties but also provided excellent fatigue resistance and adhesion. The hydrogel’s ability to restrain crack propagation was particularly noteworthy, making it highly suitable for applications requiring high mechanical performance.

The study’s findings have significant implications for the development of flexible electronics and wearable devices. The PAM-C-BCN hydrogel’s excellent mechanical properties, combined with its high conductivity and adhesion, make it a promising material for applications such as electronic skin, soft robotics, and strain sensors. The researchers suggest that further optimization of the C-BCN production process could enhance the hydrogel’s performance even further.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Fabricating ultra-robust hydrogels with adhesive properties by restraining crack propagation with bamboo cellulose-based carbon nanomaterials by Xin Duan, Huanxin Huo, Hongshan Li, Yihong Gao, Haoran Shi, Feng Kuang, Yumeng Chen, Jianyong Wan, Jingjie Shen, Guanben Du, Long Yang. Journal of Bioresources and Bioproducts DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jobab.2025.05.002 In Press, Corrected Proof Available online 14 May 2025 Creative Commons Licence: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International Deed)

This paper is open access.

Stay warm with smart fabric that can heat up by 30°C after 10 minutes exposure to the sun

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Presumably this material would be used for clothing worn in much colder climates than what we experience in the Pacific Northwest where even during the winter a hike of 30°C would have you sweating like a pig.

A January 23, 2025 news item on phys.org announces the latest news about the fast-heating smart fabric,

A new type of cloth developed by researchers at the University of Waterloo [Ontario, Canada] can heat up when exposed to the sun thanks to innovative nanoparticles embedded in the fabric’s fibers. This advance represents an innovative and environmentally friendly option for staying warm in the winter.

…

A demonstration of how stretchy the smart fabric is. The fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape. (University of Waterloo)

A January 23, 2025 University of Waterloo news release, which originated the news item, delves further into heated winter clothes and their latest collaborative research, Note: A link has been removed,

Wearable heated clothing typically relies on metals or ceramic heating elements to heat up and an external power source, which could pose safety risks for users.

This new cloth incorporates conductive polymer nanoparticles that can heat up to 30degrees Celsius when exposed to sunlight. The design requires no external power and can also change colour to visually monitor temperature fluctuations.

“The magic behind the temperature-sensitive colour change lies in the combination of nanoparticles embedded in the polymer fibres,” said Yuning Li, a professor in Waterloo’s Department of Chemical Engineering, and part of the research team that includes Chaoxia Wang and Fangqing Ge from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University in China.

“The nanoparticles are activated by sunlight, enabling the fabric to absorb heat and convert it into warmth.”

The fibre is created using a scalable wet-spinning process, combining polyaniline and polydopamine nanoparticles to enhance light absorption and improve photothermal conversion. Thermoplastic polyurethane serves as the spinning matrix, while thermochromic dyes enable the reversible color-changing feature. The resultant fiber can be woven into fabric for wearable applications.

n addition to its temperature-changing capability, the Waterloo researcher’s new fabric can stretch out by as much as five times its original shape and withstand as much as two-dozen washings while still maintaining its function and appearance. Its reversible colour-changing ability provides a built-in temperature monitoring feature to ensure the wearer’s safety and convenience.

“We prioritized durability, ensuring the fabric could withstand repeated use and environmental exposure while maintaining its innovative properties,” said Li.

The Waterloo team is exploring more cost-effective alternatives to polydopamine to make the smart fabric technology more accessible. Future developments will focus on scaling the production process and reducing costs without compromising on the fabric’s innovative properties.

The fabric’s potential applications include aiding in cold rescue situations and solar-powered pet clothing to help keep them comfortable when outside during the winter.

The study was recently published in the Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Color tunable photo-thermochromic elastic fiber for flexible wearable heater by Fangqing Ge, Jun Peng, Jialing Tan, Weidong Yu, Yuning Li, & Chaoxia Wang. Journal of Advanced Composites and Hybrid Materials Volume 7, article number 173, (2024) DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42114-024-00994-4 Published: 11 October 2024

This paper is behind a paywall.

For some earlier work from this international collaboration, I have a November 1, 2024 posting about energy harvesting fabric.

‘SWEET’ (smart, wearable, and eco-friendly electronic textiles)

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I always appreciate a good acronym and this one is pretty good. (From my perspective, a good acronym is memorable and doesn’t involve tortured terminology such as CRISPR-Cas9, which stands for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats-CRISPR-associated protein 9).

On to ‘SWEET’ and a January 2, 2025 news item on ScienceDaily announcing a new UK study on wearable e-textiles,

A research team led by the University of Southampton and UWE Bristol [University of the West of England Bristol] has shown wearable electronic textiles (e-textiles) can be both sustainable and biodegradable.

A new study, which also involved the universities of Exeter, Cambridge, Leeds and Bath, describes and tests a new sustainable approach for fully inkjet-printed, eco-friendly e-textiles named ‘Smart, Wearable, and Eco-friendly Electronic Textiles’, or ‘SWEET’.

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A January 2, 2025 University of Southampton press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, describes e-textiles and how this latest work represents a step forward in making them environmentally friendly,

…

E-textiles are those with embedded electrical components, such as sensors, batteries or lights. They might be used in fashion, for performance sportwear, or for medical purposes as garments that monitor people’s vital signs.

Such textiles need to be durable, safe to wear and comfortable, but also, in an industry which is increasingly concerned with clothing waste, they need to be kind to the environment when no longer required.

Professor Nazmul Karim at the University of Southampton’s Winchester School of Art, who led the study, explains: “Integrating electrical components into conventional textiles complicates the recycling of the material because it often contains metals, such as silver, that don’t easily biodegrade. Our potential ecofriendly approach for selecting sustainable materials and manufacturing overcomes this, enabling the fabric to decompose when it is disposed of.”

The team’s design has three layers, a sensing layer, a layer to interface with the sensors and a base fabric. It uses a textile called Tencel for the base, which is made from renewable wood and is biodegradable. The active electronics in the design are made from graphene, along with a polymer called PEDOT: PSS. These conductive materials are precision inkjet-printed onto the fabric.

The researchers tested samples of the material for continuous monitoring of human physiology using five volunteers. Swatches of the fabric, connected to monitoring equipment, were attached to gloves worn by the participants. Results confirmed the material can effectively and reliably measure both heart rate and temperature at the industry standard level.

Dr Shaila Afroj, an Associate Professor of Sustainable Materials from the University of Exeter and a co-author of the study, highlighted the importance of this performance: “Achieving reliable, industry-standard monitoring with eco-friendly materials is a significant milestone. It demonstrates that sustainability doesn’t have to come at the cost of functionality, especially in critical applications like healthcare.”

The project team then buried the e-textiles in soil to measure its biodegradable properties. After four months, the fabric had lost 48 percent of its weight and 98 percent of its strength, suggesting relatively rapid and also effective decomposition. Furthermore, a life cycle assessment revealed the graphene-based electrodes had up to 40 times less impact on the environment than standard electrodes.

Marzia Dulal from UWE Bristol, a Commonwealth PhD Scholar and the first author of the study, highlighted the environmental impact: “Our life cycle analysis shows that graphene-based e-textiles have a fraction of the environmental footprint compared to traditional electronics. This makes them a more responsible choice for industries looking to reduce their ecological impact.”

The ink-jet printing process is also a more sustainable approach for e-textile fabrications, depositing exact numbers of functional materials on textiles as needed, with almost no material waste and less use of water and energy than conventional screen printing.

Professor Karim concludes: “ Amid rising pollution from landfill sites, our study helps to address a lack of research in the area of biodegradation of e-textiles. These materials will become increasingly more important in our lives, particularly in the area of healthcare, so it’s really important we consider how to make them more eco-friendly, both in their manufacturing and disposal.”

The researchers hope they can now move forward with designing wearable garments made from SWEET for potential use in the healthcare sector, particularly in the area of early detection and prevention of heart-related diseases that 640 million people (source: BHF [British Heart Foundation]) suffer from worldwide.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Sustainable, Wearable, and Eco-Friendly Electronic Textiles by Marzia Dulal, Harsh Rajesh Mansukhlal Modha, Jingqi Liu, Md Rashedul Islam, Chris Carr, Tawfique Hasan, Robin Michael Statham Thorn, Shaila Afroj, Nazmul Karim. Energy & Enviornmental Materials DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/eem2.12854 First published: 18 December 2024

This paper is open access.

Early morning run could power your electrical wearables

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I don’t think this is going to be happening tomorrow but here’s a relatively recent news item on ScienceDaily from August 22, 2024 about bioenergy harvesting and wearable technology,

Your early morning run could soon help harvest enough electricity to power your wearable devices, thanks to new nanotechnology developed at the University of Surrey [UK].

Surrey’s Advanced Technology Institute (ATI) has developed highly energy-efficient, flexible nanogenerators, which demonstrate a 140-fold increase in power density when compared to conventional nanogenerators. ATI researchers believe that this development could pave the way for nano-devices that are as efficient as today’s solar cells.

…

An August 21, 2024 University of Surrey press release (also on EurekAlert but published August 22, 2024), which originated the news item, provides more information about the research,

Surrey’s devices can convert small amounts of everyday mechanical energy, like motion, into a significantly higher amount of electrical power, similar to how an amplifier boosts sound in an electronic system. For instance, if a traditional nanogenerator produces 10 milliwatts of power, this new technology could increase that output to over 1,000 milliwatts, making it suitable for energy harvesting in various everyday applications. 

ATI’s nanogenerator works like a relay team – instead of one electrode (the runner) passing energy (charge) by itself. Each runner collects a baton (charge), adds more and then passes all batons to the next runner, boosting the overall energy that is collected in a process called the charge regeneration effect. 

Lead author of the study from the University of Surrey, Md Delowar Hussain, said: 

“The dream of nanogenerators is to capture and use energy from everyday movements, like your morning run, mechanical vibrations, ocean waves or opening a door. The key innovation with our nanogenerator is that we’ve fine-tuned the technology with 34 tiny energy collectors using a laser technique that can be scaled up for manufacture to increase energy efficiency further. 

“What’s really exciting is that our little device with high energy harvesting density could one day rival the power of solar panels and could be used to run anything from self-powered sensors to smart home systems that run without ever needing a battery change.” 

The device is a triboelectric nanogenerator (TENG) – a device that can capture and turn the energy from simple, everyday movements into electricity. They work by using materials that become electrically charged when they come into contact and then separate – similar to when you rub a balloon on your hair, and it sticks due to static electricity.  

Dr Bhaskar Dudem, co-author of the study from the University of Surrey, said:  

“We are soon going to launch a company focused on self-powered, non-invasive healthcare sensors using triboelectric technology. Innovations like these will enable us to drive new spin-out activities in sustainable health tech, improve sensitivity, and emphasize industrial scalability.” 

Professor Ravi Silva, co-author of the study and Director of the Advanced Technology Institute at the University of Surrey, said: 

“With the ever-increasing technology around us, it is predicted that we will have over 50 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices in the next few years that will need energy to be powered. Local green energy solutions are needed, and this could be a convenient wireless technology that harnesses energy from any mechanical movements to power small devices. It offers an opportunity for the scientific and engineering community to find innovative and sustainable solutions to global challenges.” 

“We are incredibly excited about the potential of these nanogenerators to transform how we think about energy. You could also imagine these devices being used in IoT-based self-powered smart systems like autonomous wireless operations, security monitoring, and smart home systems, or even for supporting dementia patients, an area in which the University of Surrey has great expertise.” 

…

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Exploring charge regeneration effect in interdigitated array electrodes-based TENGs for a more than 100-fold enhanced power density by Md Delowar Hussain, Bhaskar Dudem, Dimitar I. Kutsarov, S. Ravi P. Silva. Nano Energy Volume 130, November 2024, 110112 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nanoen.2024.110112 Available online 13 August 2024, Version of Record 21 August 2024

This paper is open access under a Creative Commons license.

Converting body heat into electricity with smart fabric

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This bioenergy harvesting story is from the University of Waterloo (Ontario, Canada), where its researchers were part of an international collaboration. From an August 14, 2023 news item on ScienceDaily,

Imagine a coat that captures solar energy to keep you cozy on a chilly winter walk, or a shirt that can monitor your heart rate and temperature.Picture clothing athletes can wear to track their performance without the need for bulky battery packs.

University of Waterloo researchers have developed a smart fabric with these remarkable capabilities.

The fabric has the potential for energy harvesting, health monitoring, and movement tracking applications.

…

An August 14, 2024 University of Waterloo news release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, provides more information about the new fabric and the research team, Note: A link has been removed,

The new fabric developed by a Waterloo research team can convert body heat and solar energy into electricity, potentially enabling continuous operation with no need for an external power source. Different sensors monitoring temperature, stress, and more can be integrated into the material.

It can detect temperature changes and a range of other sensors to monitor pressure, chemical composition, and more. One promising application is smart face masks that can track breath temperature and rate and detect chemicals in breath to help identify viruses, lung cancer, and other conditions.

“We have developed a fabric material with multifunctional sensing capabilities and self-powering potential,” said Yuning Li, a professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering. “This innovation brings us closer to practical applications for smart fabrics.”

Unlike current wearable devices that often depend on external power sources or frequent recharging, this breakthrough research has created a novel fabric which is more stable, durable, and cost-effective than other fabrics on the market. 

This research, conducted in collaboration with Professor Chaoxia Wang and PhD student Jun Peng from the College of Textile Science and Engineering at Jiangnan University, showcases the potential of integrating advanced materials such as MXene and conductive polymers with cutting-edge textile technologies to advance smart fabrics for wearable technology.

Li, director of Waterloo’s Printable Electronic Materials Lab, highlighted the significance of this advancement, which is the latest in the university’s suite of technologies disrupting health boundaries.

“AI technology is evolving rapidly, offering sophisticated signal analysis for health monitoring, food and pharmaceutical storage, environmental monitoring, and more. However, this progress relies on extensive data collection, which conventional sensors, often bulky, heavy, and costly, cannot meet,” Li said. “Printed sensors, including those embedded in smart fabrics, are ideal for continuous data collection and monitoring. This new smart fabric is a step forward in making these applications practical.”

The next phase of research will focus on further enhancing the fabric’s performance and integrating it with electronic components in collaboration with electrical and computer engineers. Future developments may include a smartphone app to track and transmit data from the fabric to healthcare professionals, enabling real-time, non-invasive health monitoring and everyday use.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

MXene-based thermoelectric fabric integrated with temperature and strain sensing for health monitoring by Jun Peng, Fangqing Ge, Weiyi Han, Tao Wu, Jinglei Tang, Yuning Li, Chaoxia Wang. Journal of Materials Science & Technology Volume 212, 20 March 2025, Pages 272-280

This paper is behind a paywall but you will be able to read snippets in a preview.

‘Jelly’ batteries

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Caption: Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy. Credit: University of Cambridge

A July 18, 2024 news item on Nanowerk announces bioinspried stretchy batteries from the University of Cambridge,

Researchers have developed soft, stretchable ‘jelly batteries’ that could be used for wearable devices or soft robotics, or even implanted in the brain to deliver drugs or treat conditions such as epilepsy.

The researchers, from the University of Cambridge, took their inspiration from electric eels, which stun their prey with modified muscle cells called electrocytes.

Like electrocytes, the jelly-like materials developed by the Cambridge researchers have a layered structure, like sticky Lego, that makes them capable of delivering an electric current.

…

A July 17, 2024 University of Cambridge press release (also on EurekAlert), which originated the news item, offers more details,

The self-healing jelly batteries can stretch to over ten times their original length without affecting their conductivity – the first time that such stretchability and conductivity has been combined in a single material. The results are reported in the journal Science Advances.

The jelly batteries are made from hydrogels: 3D networks of polymers that contain over 60% water. The polymers are held together by reversible on/off interactions that control the jelly’s mechanical properties.

The ability to precisely control mechanical properties and mimic the characteristics of human tissue makes hydrogels ideal candidates for soft robotics and bioelectronics; however, they need to be both conductive and stretchy for such applications.

“It’s difficult to design a material that is both highly stretchable and highly conductive, since those two properties are normally at odds with one another,” said first author Stephen O’Neill, from Cambridge’s Yusuf Hamied Department of Chemistry. “Typically, conductivity decreases when a material is stretched.”

“Normally, hydrogels are made of polymers that have a neutral charge, but if we charge them, they can become conductive,” said co-author Dr Jade McCune, also from the Department of Chemistry. “And by changing the salt component of each gel, we can make them sticky and squish them together in multiple layers, so we can build up a larger energy potential.”

Conventional electronics use rigid metallic materials with electrons as charge carriers, while the jelly batteries use ions to carry charge, like electric eels.

The hydrogels stick strongly to each other because of reversible bonds that can form between the different layers, using barrel-shaped molecules called cucurbiturils that are like molecular handcuffs. The strong adhesion between layers provided by the molecular handcuffs allows for the jelly batteries to be stretched, without the layers coming apart and crucially, without any loss of conductivity.

The properties of the jelly batteries make them promising for future use in biomedical implants, since they are soft and mould to human tissue. “We can customise the mechanical properties of the hydrogels so they match human tissue,” said Professor Oren Scherman, Director of the Melville Laboratory for Polymer Synthesis, who led the research in collaboration with Professor George Malliaras from the Department of Engineering. “Since they contain no rigid components such as metal, a hydrogel implant would be much less likely to be rejected by the body or cause the build-up of scar tissue.”

In addition to their softness, the hydrogels are also surprisingly tough. They can withstand being squashed without permanently losing their original shape, and can self-heal when damaged.

The researchers are planning future experiments to test the hydrogels in living organisms to assess their suitability for a range of medical applications.

The research was funded by the European Research Council and the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI). Oren Scherman is a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge.

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Highly stretchable dynamic hydrogels for soft multilayer electronics by Stephen J. K. O’Neill, Zehuan Huang, Xiaoyi Chen, Renata L. Sala, Jade A. McCune, George G. Malliaras, and Oren A. Scherman. Science Advances 17 Jul 2024 Vol 10, Issue 29 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adn5142

This paper appears to be open access.

Painless, wearable patch for continuous smartphone monitoring of critical health data from Canadian researchers

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A June 18, 2024 McMaster University news release also on EurekAlert and on the University of Waterloo news website) by Wade Hemsworth describes the ‘Wearable Aptalyzer’, Note: A link has been removed,

Researchers at two Ontario universities have developed a pain-free, wearable sensor that can continuously monitor levels of blood sugar, lactates and other critical health indicators for weeks at a time, sending results to a smartphone or other device.

The Wearable Aptalyzer, created by a team featuring researchers from McMaster University and the University of Waterloo, uses an array of tiny hydrogel needles that penetrate just deeply enough to reach the interstitial fluid beneath the skin, but not far enough to reach the blood vessels or nerves.

The patch gathers and sends information about markers in the fluid to an electronic device such as a smart phone, creating an ongoing record of patterns in the rise and fall of critical biomarkers.

Once developed for clinical use, it will allow health professionals to access current medical information that today is available only retrospectively after blood tests and lab work.

The new technology could make monitoring the markers of specific diseases and conditions as simple as tracking pulse, blood pressure and other vital signs. The researchers describe the work in a new paper published today [version of record published May 16, 2024] in the journal Advanced Materials.

“This technology can provide real-time information about both chronic and acute health conditions, allowing caregivers to act more quickly and with greater certainty when they see trouble,” says one of the paper’s two corresponding authors, McMaster’s Leyla Soleymani,  professor of Engineering Physics who holds the Canada Research Chair in Miniaturized Biomedical Devices.

“The Wearable Aptalyzer is a general platform, meaning it can measure any biomarkers of interest, ranging from diabetes to cardiac biomarkers,” says corresponding author Mahla Poudineh, an assistant professor and director of the IDEATION Lab in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Waterloo. “Continuous health monitoring doesn’t just help catch diseases early and track how treatments are working. It also helps us understand how diseases happen, filling in important gaps in our knowledge that need attention.”

A user would apply and remove the patch much like a small bandage held in place with barely visible, soft hooks. The convenience is likely to appeal to diabetics and others who test themselves by drawing samples of blood or by using solid monitoring patches with metal needles that penetrate deeper and rely on less specific electrodes.

The greatest promise of the technology, though, may lie in its ability to produce weeks’ worth of meaningful results at a time, and to transmit data to electronic devices experts can read without sophisticated equipment.

Among the other potential applications, the Wearable Aptalyzer can make it possible to read and send data that signals cardiac events in real time, making it a potentially valuable tool for monitoring patients in ambulances and emergency rooms, and during treatment. The same technology can readily be adapted to monitor the progress and treatment of many chronic illnesses, including cancers, the researchers say.

The technology holds promise for improving care use in remote care settings, such as northern Indigenous communities set far from hospitals, or on space flights. Data from the Wearable Aptalyzer can signal trouble before symptoms become apparent, making it more likely patients can receive timely care.

The next steps in developing the technology for broad use include human trials and regulatory approvals. The researchers are seeking partners to help commercialize the technology.

The paper’s lead authors are Fatemeh Bakhshandeh of McMaster and Hanjia Zheng of Waterloo. Together with Soleymani and Poudineh, their co-authors are Waterloo’s Sadegh Sadeghzadeh, Irfani Ausri, Fatemeh Keyvani, Fasih Rahman, Joe Quadrilatero, and Juewen Liu, and McMaster’s Nicole Barra, Payel Sen, and Jonathan Schertzer.

Caption: The monitoring patch as compared to a 25-cent coin for scale. Credit: University of Waterloo

Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

Wearable Aptalyzer Integrates Microneedle and Electrochemical Sensing for In Vivo Monitoring of Glucose and Lactate in Live Animals by Fatemeh Bakhshandeh, Hanjia Zheng, Nicole G. Barra, Sadegh Sadeghzadeh, Irfani Ausri, Payel Sen, Fatemeh Keyvani, Fasih Rahman, Joe Quadrilatero, Juewen Liu, Jonathan D. Schertzer, Leyla Soleymani, Mahla Poudineh. Advanced Materials 2313743 DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202313743 First online version of record published: 16 May 2024

This paper is open access.

Better (safer, cheaper) battery invented for wearable tech

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A June 5, 2024 news item on phys.org announces new research into ‘aqueous’ wearable batteries,

Researchers have developed a safer, cheaper, better performing and more flexible battery option for wearable devices. A paper describing the “recipe” for their new battery type was published in the journal Nano Research Energy on June 3 [2024].

Fitness trackers. Smart watches. Virtual-reality headsets. Even smart clothing and implants. Wearable smart devices are everywhere these days. But for greater comfort, reliability and longevity, these devices will require greater levels of flexibility and miniaturization of their energy storage mechanisms, which are often frustratingly bulky, heavy and fragile. On top of this, any improvements cannot come at the expense of safety.

As a result, in recent years, a great deal of battery research has focused on the development of “micro” flexible energy storage devices, or MFESDs. A range of different structures and electrochemical foundations have been explored, and among them, aqueous micro batteries offer many distinct advantages.

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A June 5, 2024 Tsinghua University press release on EurekAlert, which originated the news item, provides more detail,

Aqueous batteries—those that use a water-based solution as an electrolyte (the medium that allows transport of ions in the battery and thus creating an electric circuit) are nothing new. They have been around since the late 19th century. However, their energy density—or the amount of energy contained in the battery per unit of volume—is too low for use in things like electric vehicles as they would take up too much space. Lithium-ion batteries are far more appropriate for such uses.

At the same time, aqueous batteries are much less flammable, and thus safer, than lithium-ion batteries. They are also much cheaper. As a result of this more robust safety and low cost, aqueous options have increasingly been explored as one of the better options for MFESDs. These are termed aqueous micro batteries, or just AMBs.

“Up till now, sadly, AMBs have not lived up to their potential,” said Ke Niu, a materials scientist with the Guangxi Key Laboratory of Optical and Electronic Materials and Devices at the Guilin University of Technology—one of the lead researchers on the team. “To be able to be used in a wearable device, they need to withstand a certain degree of real-world bending and twisting. But most of those explored so far fail in the face of such stress.”

To overcome this, any fractures or failure points in an AMB would need to be self-healing following such stress. Unfortunately, the self-healing AMBs that have been developed so far have tended to depend on metallic compounds as the carriers of charge in the battery’s electric circuit. This has the undesirable side-effect of strong reaction between the metal’s ions and the materials that the electrodes (the battery’s positive and negative electrical conductors) are made out of. This in turn reduces the battery’s reaction rate (the speed at which the electrochemical reactions at the heart of any battery take place), drastically limiting performance.

“So we started investigating the possibility of non-metallic charge carriers, as these would not suffer from the same difficulties from interaction with the electrodes,” added Junjie Shi, another leading member of the team and a researcher with the School of Physics and Center zfor Nanoscale Characterization & Devices (CNCD) at the Huazhong University of Science and Technology in Wuhan.

The research team alighted upon ammonium ions, derived from abundantly available ammonium salts, as the optimal charge carriers. They are far less corrosive than other options and have a wide electrochemical stability window.

“But ammonium ions are not the only ingredient in the recipe needed to make our batteries self-healing,” said Long Zhang, the third leading member of the research team, also at CNCD.

For that, the team incorporated the ammonium salts into a hydrogel—a polymer material that can absorb and retain a large amount of water without disturbing its structure. This gives hydrogels impressive flexibility—delivering precisely the sort of self-healing character needed. Gelatin is probably the most well-known hydrogel, although the researchers in this case opted for a polyvinyl alcohol hydrogel (PVA) for its great strength and low cost.

To optimize compatibility with the ammonium electrolyte, titanium carbide—a ‘2D’ nanomaterial with only a single layer of atoms—was chosen for the anode (the negative electrode) material for its excellent conductivity. Meanwhile manganese dioxide, already commonly used in dry cell batteries, was woven into a carbon nanotube matrix (again to improve conductivity) for the cathode (the positive electrode).

Testing of the prototype self-healing battery showed it exhibited excellent energy density, power density, cycle life, flexibility, and self-healing even after ten self-healing cycles.

The team now aims to further develop and optimise their prototype in preparation for commercial production.

About Nano Research Energy

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Here’s a link to and a citation for the paper,

A self-healing aqueous ammonium-ion micro batteries based on PVA-NH4Cl hydrogel electrolyte and MXene-integrated perylene anode by Ke Niu, Junjie Shi, Long Zhang, Yang Yue, Mengjie Wang, Qixiang Zhang, Yanan Ma, Shuyi Mo, Shaofei Li, Wenbiao Li, Li Wen, Yixin Hou, Fei Long, Yihua Gao. Nano Research Energy (2024)DOI: https://doi.org/10.26599/NRE.2024.9120127 Published: 03 June 2024

This paper is open access by means of a “Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.”