A Wearable, Bending-Insensitive Respiration Sensor Using Highly Oriented Carbon Nanotube Film
Thanh Nguyen, Toan Dinh, Van Thanh Dau, Canh‐Dung Tran, Hoang‐Phuong Phan, Tuan‐Khoa Nguyen, Hong Khac Nguyen, Foisal Abu Riduan, Pablo Guzmán, Nam‐Trung Nguyen, Dzung Viet Dao
Abstract
Recently, wearable electronics for health monitoring have been demonstrated with considerable benefits for early-stage disease detection. This article reports a flexible, bending-insensitive, bio-compatible and lightweight respiration sensor. The sensor consists of highly oriented carbon nanotube (HO-CNT) films embedded between electro-spun polyacrylonitrile (PAN) layers. By aligning carbon nanotubes between the PAN layers, the sensor exhibits a high sensitivity towards airflow (340 mV/(m/s)) and excellent flexibility and robustness. In addition, the HO-CNT sensor is insensitive to mechanical bending, making it suitable for wearable applications. We successfully demonstrated the attachment of the sensor to the human philtrum for real-time monitoring of the respiration quality. These results indicate the potential of HO-CNT flow sensor for ubiquitous personal health care applications.