Battery-Free Wearable Electrochemical Sweat Sensors

Abstract

Broad adoption of wearable sensor devices that continuously and unobtrusively monitor physiochemical biomarkers can enable personalized healthcare through big data and predictive algorithms. Wearable sweat sensing offers an attractive means of biochemical screening among large populations as sweat is rich in biomarkers. However, sustainable powering of wearable sweat sensor devices is a challenge as autonomous sweat extraction, multiplexed biomarker detection, data processing, and data communication consume significant energy and typically require bulky lithium batteries. Various energy harvesting modules such as triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs), biofuel cells (BFCs), and solar cells (SCs) have been judiciously designed and integrated into wearable platforms for battery-free analysis of sweat biomarkers.