Roll-to-Roll Gravure Printed Electrochemical Sensors for Wearable and Medical Devices

Abstract

As recent developments in noninvasive biosensors spearhead the thrust toward personalized health and fitness monitoring, there is a need for high throughput, cost-effective fabrication of flexible sensing components. Toward this goal, we present roll-to-roll (R2R) gravure printed electrodes that are robust under a range of electrochemical sensing applications. We use inks and electrode morphologies designed for electrochemical and mechanical stability, achieving devices with uniform redox kinetics printed on 150 m flexible substrate rolls. We show that these electrodes can be functionalized into consistently high performing sensors for detecting ions, metabolites, heavy metals, and other small molecules in noninvasively accessed biofluids, including sensors for real-time, in situ perspiration monitoring during exercise. This development of robust and versatile R2R gravure printed electrodes represents a key translational step in enabling large-scale, low-cost fabrication of disposable wearable sensors for personalized health monitoring applications.